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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Zerrin Salikutluk; Johannes Giesecke; Martin Kroh |
| Abstract: | While general ethnic disadvantages are well documented, much less is known about coinciding disadvantages of ethnic origin and gender. Based on theoretical arguments of human capital theory, sociocultural approaches, labour market segmentation theory, and discrimination mechanisms, we investigate whether immigrant women experience more difficulties on the labour market than immigrant men, non-immigrant men and women. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel from 2013 and 2015 we deal with interaction patterns of ethnic origin and gender regarding various labour market outcomes for immigrants from Turkey and the former Soviet Union. We analyse the impact of individual resources like education, language proficiency, and job characteristics on ethnic and gender gaps. We find evidence of additional disadvantages of immigrant women on each outcome variable that largely seem to be attributable to differences in qualifications and language proficiency. However, for women from the former Soviet Union and second-generation Turkish women specific disadvantages are apparent that cannot be explained by individual and job characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Labour Market, Integration, Migration, Gender, Gender Disparities |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1072&r=all |
| By: | Edoardo FERRUCCI; Francesco LISSONI; Ernest MIGUELEZ |
| Abstract: | Based on an original dataset spanning over 20 years of patenting at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), we identify the gender, residence, and nationality of inventors, based on which we also identify migrants and natives in the United States, as well as stayers (non-migrants) in the migrants’ countries of origin. We find that the share of women over the total number of US-resident inventors (or WIR: Women Inventor Rate) is generally higher for migrants than for US natives, so that the former have contributed significantly to the increase of WIR in the US over the past quarter century. At the same time, the WIR for migrants is higher than that of stayers, which suggests that migration to the US represents an opportunity for high-skilled women to undertake a career in R&D, notwithstanding the obstacles they may face, and irrespective of their country of origin. This intuition is reinforced by an analysis of women inventors’ technological specialization, which reveals that female migrants are better represented than natives and stayers in men-dominated fields. |
| Keywords: | STEM migrants; High-skilled migrants; Inventors; Gender |
| JEL: | J16 F22 O15 O30 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:bdxewp:2020-01&r=all |
| By: | Lara Cockx; Elfriede Lecossois |
| Abstract: | Do the returns to migration extend beyond migrants themselves and accrue to the children of migrants? Drawing upon data from a unique 19-year longitudinal survey from Tanzania, this paper empirically investigates this question by exploiting the variation in the outcomes of the children of migrants and the children of the migrants' siblings who stayed behind conditional upon a range of individual characteristics of their parents. I show that parental migration has important implications for child development. This relation depends on the destination and the timing of the move. More specifically, children whose parents migrated from rural areas to cities are heavier, taller and more educated for their age. The effects on height and schooling are strongest for children who were exposed to the city environment during their early childhood. In contrast, children whose parents moved to a different rural village do not appear to experience any health advantage and those moving alongside their parents even start schooling at a later age. In addition to conferring a broader view of the returns to physical mobility, this analysis contributes to the debate on the origin of spatial inequalities in developing countries. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:licosp:648684&r=all |
| By: | Orrenius, Pia M. (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas); Zavodny, Madeline (University of North Florida) |
| Abstract: | Immigration reform is once again on Washington's policy agenda. Serious attention is being given to policies that would place more emphasis on merit than on family ties, which are favored by much of the current US immigration system. One way to determine merit is a point-based system. This paper argues that auctioning off visas would be preferable to a point-based system. Auctions would promote economic growth, increase government revenue, and lead to a more efficient allocation of visas while reducing discretionary decision making by government officials. This paper outlines several proposals for how to implement visa auctions that could serve as a starting point for designing a better immigration policy. We recommend replacing the current system of employment-based temporary and permanent visas with an employer-centered auction in order to increase the economic gains from immigration. |
| Keywords: | immigration, foreign workers, visa auction |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J15 D44 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp151&r=all |
| By: | Lokshin,Michael M.; Ravallion,Martin |
| Abstract: | Citizens have a right to accept any job offer in their country, but that right is not marketable or automatically extended to foreigners. Yet, some citizens have useful things to do if they could rent out their right-to-work, and there are foreigners who would value the new options for employment. Thus, there is a missing market. A solution is to allow people to rent out their right-to-work for a period of their choice. On the other side of the market, foreigners could purchase time-bound work permits. The market would no longer be missing. This paper formulates and studies this policy proposal. |
| Date: | 2019–09–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9005&r=all |
| By: | Lucia Hanmer (The World Bank); Diana J. Arango (The World Bank); Eliana Rubiano (The World Bank); Julieth Santamaria (The World Bank); Mariana Viollaz (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Data collected for refugee registration and to target humanitarian assistance include information about household composition and demographics that can be used to identify gender- based vulnerabilities. This paper combines the microdata collected by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to register refugees with data from its Home Visit surveys to analyze income poverty rates among refugees with a gender lens. It finds distinguishing between different types of male and female principal applicant (PA) households is important in the setting of Syrian refugees in Jordan. Poverty rates for couples with children do not differ by gender of the PA but for other household types poverty rates are higher for those with female PAs. Households formed because of the unpredictable dynamics of forced displacement, such as sibling households, unaccompanied children, and single caregivers, are extremely vulnerable, especially if the principal applicant is a woman or a girl. |
| Keywords: | gender; refugees; household poverty; vulnerability; Syria; Jordan JEL Classification: 053; D10 I 132; J1 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:281&r=all |
| By: | Cockx, Bart (Ghent University); Lechner, Michael (University of St. Gallen); Bollens, Joost (VDAB, Belgium) |
| Abstract: | We investigate heterogenous employment effects of Flemish training programmes. Based on administrative individual data, we analyse programme effects at various aggregation levels using Modified Causal Forests (MCF), a causal machine learning estimator for multiple programmes. While all programmes have positive effects after the lock-in period, we find substantial heterogeneity across programmes and types of unemployed. Simulations show that assigning unemployed to programmes that maximise individual gains as identified in our estimation can considerably improve effectiveness. Simplified rules, such as one giving priority to unemployed with low employability, mostly recent migrants, lead to about half of the gains obtained by more sophisticated rules. |
| Keywords: | policy evaluation, active labour market policy, causal machine learning, modified causal forest, conditional average treatment effects |
| JEL: | J68 |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12875&r=all |
| By: | Francesco Bogliacino (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Centro de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo, Carrera 30, No 45-03, BogotaÌ , Bloque 311, Oficina 12b, 3165000 ext. 12431); Gianluca Grimalda (Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Centre for Global Cooperation Research); Laura JimeÌ nez (Universidad Nacional de Colombia); Daniel Reyes Galvis (Universidad Nacional de Colombia); Cristiano Codagnone (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya; UniversitaÌ€ degli Studi di Milano) |
| Abstract: | We assess the impact of a governmental program to compensate victims of forced displacement on pro-social behavior. All our subjects were eligible to apply for restitution of their land in accordance with the "Bill of Victims" (Ley de ViÌ ctimas, Bill 1448/2011). The key independent variable of our analysis is whether a subject had obtained land within this or similar programs. Our dependent variables are a subject's trust and trustworthiness to unknown others, as measured by a modified version of a Trust Game. We focus on interpersonal trust and trustworthiness because of their well-documented positive effect on economic development. Our design also included a treatment in which subjects voted on their most preferred outcomes in the Trust Game, because we wanted to understand whether forms of consultative democracy could engender higher mutual trust. We find that land restitution significantly increases trustworthiness, while there is no effect on trust. This is consistent with findings that trust and trustworthiness tap into different aspects of pro-sociality. Voting does not improve either trust or trustworthiness, but there is a positive effect once interacted with restitution. |
| Keywords: | trust; trustworthiness; internally displaced population; reparations JEL Classification: C93, I38, Q15 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:291&r=all |
| By: | Schone, Pal (Institute for Social Research, Oslo); Strom, Marte (Institute for Social Research, Oslo) |
| Abstract: | We study how the 2004 EU enlargement to Eastern European countries has affected employment, earnings and the sharing of home production among workers employed in the Building and Construction industry, and their wives. We use license requirements to divide workers into two groups who are more and less exposed to labor market competition. We find that non-licensed workers experience a fall in labor earnings relative to licensed workers after the EU enlargement. Increased wife's labor supply and earnings compensate almost 40 percent of the loss. We do not find a similar change in the division of labor in home production. |
| Keywords: | immigration, female employment, division of labor, parental leave |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12857&r=all |
| By: | Courtney Brell; Christian Dustmann; Ian Preston |
| Abstract: | We provide an overview of the integration of refugees into the labor markets of a number of high-income countries. Discussing the ways in which refugees and economic migrants are differently selected and so might be expected to perform differently in a host country’s labor market, we examine employment and wages for these groups over time after arrival. There is significant heterogeneity between host countries, but in general refugees experience persistently worse outcomes than other migrants. While the gaps between the groups can be seen to decrease on a timescale of a decade or two, this is more pronounced in employment rates than it is in wages. We also discuss how refugees are distinct in terms of other factors affecting integration, including health, language skills and social networks. We provide a discussion of insights for public policy in receiving countries, concluding that supporting refugees in early labor market attachment is crucial. |
| Keywords: | immigration, refugee migration, assimilation |
| JEL: | J01 J61 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8050&r=all |
| By: | Johannes Buggle; Mathias Thoenig; Thierry Mayer; Seyhun Orcan Sakalli |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate the push and pull factors involved in the outmigration of Jews facing persecution in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1941 when migration was banned. Our empirical investigation makes use of a unique individual-level dataset that records the migration history of almost the entire universe of Jews living in Germany over the period. Our analysis highlights new channels, specific to violent contexts, through which social networks affect the decision to flee. We first estimate a structural model of migration where individuals base their own migration decision on the observation of persecution and migration among their peers. Identification rests on exogenous variations in push and pull factors across peers who live in different cities of residence. Then we perform various counterfactual policy experiments in order to quantify how migration restrictions in destination countries affected the fate of Jews. For example, removing work restrictions for refugees after the Nuremberg Laws (in 1935) would have led to 27% increase in Jewish migration out of Germany. |
| Keywords: | Refugees, Migration Policy, Antisemitism, Nazi Germany |
| JEL: | F22 N40 F50 D74 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lau:crdeep:20.01&r=all |
| By: | Phadera,Lokendra |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the differential impact of migration on labor supply of the left-behind household members in Nepal, where international migration for employment, predominantly a male phenomenon, increased substantially between 2001 and 2011. Using the Nepal Living Standard Survey data, the paper extends the analysis by incorporating the impacts on the extensive and intensive margins. The study also answer the question: if they are not wage-employed, in what activities are the remaining household members engaging instead? The paper finds that, in response to out-migration of some family members, women realign their priorities and reallocate their time from market employment to self-employment and home production, possibly filling in the roles vacated by the migrants. In contrast, the income effect dominates the impact of migration on the left-behind men; that is, men value their leisure more because of the remittances from abroad and decrease their overall supply of labor. Additionally, the research finds significant heterogeneity in the supply of labor by age, skill, and household head status among the left-behind women, pointing toward intrahousehold bargaining. |
| Keywords: | Employment and Unemployment,Wages, Compensation&Benefits,Labor Markets,Rural Labor Markets,Inequality |
| Date: | 2019–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9014&r=all |
| By: | Yameogo,Nadege Desiree; Jammeh,Kebba |
| Abstract: | This analysis assesses the role of skills, human capital endowment, and migration as determinants of Sub-Saharan Africa's participation in manufacturing global value chains. Due to lack of reliable data on skilled labor, skilled and unskilled labor contents in exports were generated from the Global Trade Analysis Project database. A panel of 23 countries for which data on skills and manufacturing global value chains are available for 19 subsectors was constructed. A fixed-effect gravity model was used to estimate the determinants of backward and forward global value chain participation. The estimates obtained from the sample are compared with global data covering 115 countries for benchmarking purposes. The results indicate that for economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, skilled labor seems to be the strongest determinant of participation in backward and forward global value chains. Similarly, initial human capital endowment has a strong positive impact on global value chain participation at the global level. However, countries with relatively high initial capital endowment benefit more by incorporating foreign value-added products in their manufacturing exports. Finally, countries that receive net inflows of migrants tend to engage better in backward and forward global value chains than those with net outflows of migrants. The findings suggest that policies to improve Sub-Saharan Africa?s integration in manufacturing global value chains should target: shifting from unskilled to skilled labor-intensive backward and forward global value chain activities; upgrading the quality of the labor force, since unskilled workers are so far the most available and the most used in manufacturing global value chains; investing in the quality of human capital; and promoting intraregional skills mobility. |
| Keywords: | Food&Beverage Industry,Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies,Common Carriers Industry,Construction Industry,General Manufacturing,Textiles, Apparel&Leather Industry,Pulp&Paper Industry,Plastics&Rubber Industry,International Trade and Trade Rules,Health Care Services Industry,Industrial and Consumer Services and Products |
| Date: | 2019–07–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8938&r=all |
| By: | Silvia Loi (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Daniela Vono de Vilhena (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This working paper offers an overview on the availability of data on irregular migration in Germany. Precisely, it critically describes the main data sources available, indicating that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to conduct an accurate assessment of the dimensions of irregular migration as a social phenomenon in the country, the characteristics and challenges faced by this population, and the extent to which their rights are protected with the data currently available. Second, it further discusses how the lack of data on irregular migrants makes it particularly challenging to monitor specific outcomes, such as their health conditions. The final section of the document provides an overview on future prospects for the study of irregular migration in Germany, underlining the need to develop new data sources that focus on this population. |
| Keywords: | Germany, health, health policy, illegal migration, international migration, mental health |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-009&r=all |
| By: | Rosmaiza Abdul Ghani (University of Waikato); Michael P. Cameron (University of Waikato); William Cochrane (University of Waikato); Matthew Roskruge (Massey University) |
| Abstract: | Studies on the causal impact of trade on migration are rare. Most previous studies have instead looked at the impact of migration on trade. The few empirical studies that have a causal interpretation have focused either on a single country, a single region, or within the members of a single trade agreement. This paper addresses the research question, does an increase in bilateral trade flows cause an increase in bilateral migration? We employ a novel instrumental variables strategy, using World Trade Organisation (WTO) affiliation and average tariff rates as instrumental variables within a gravity model framework. This approach mitigates against the endogeneity problem and allows us to extract the causal association between bilateral trade flows and bilateral migration flows. In the model, we employ data for 248 countries over the period 1990-2010. Our preferred estimator is the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood Estimator, since it better handles the sparse nature of the data. Our findings suggest that trade is a statistically significant causal driver of migration. Based on our results, migration flows from country i to country j would increase by 11.3 percent if the corresponding trade flows increased by 10 percent. |
| Keywords: | international trade; international migration; gravity model; causality |
| JEL: | F14 F22 O24 |
| Date: | 2020–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:20/01&r=all |