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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Timothée Demont (Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, EHESS, Centrale Marseille, IRD, AMSE) |
| Abstract: | This paper asks whether local savings and credit associations help poor rural households hit by climatic shocks. Combining data from an original field experiment with meteorological data, I investigate how Self-Help Groups (SHGs) allow households to cope with rainfall shocks in villages of East India over a sevenyear period. I show that SHGs withstand large rainfall shocks remarkably, and that credit flows are very stable in treated villages. As a result, treated households experience a higher food security during the lean season following a drought and increase seasonal migration to mitigate future income shocks. These results imply that small-scale financial institutions like SHGs help to finance temporary risk management strategies and to cope with important covariate income shocks such as droughts. |
| Keywords: | microfinance, weather shocks, risk management, seasonal migration, food security |
| JEL: | O13 O15 G21 Q54 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2016&r=all |
| By: | Rozo, Sandra V.; Anders, Therese; Raphael, Steven |
| Abstract: | We study whether the forced removal of undocumented immigrants from the United States increases violent crime in Mexican municipalities. Using municipal panel data on homicide rates matched with annual deportation flows from the United States to Mexico, we assess whether municipalities with repatriation points experience higher violent crime with surges in deportation flows. We consistently find that municipalities with greater geographic exposure to deportation flows have higher violent crime. The effects are mostly driven by increments in homicide rates of young males and minors. |
| Keywords: | Crime,Migration,Latin America |
| JEL: | O15 R2 K37 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:545&r=all |
| By: | Benoit Dostie; Jiang Li; David Card; Daniel Parent |
| Abstract: | We use longitudinal data from the income tax system to study the impacts of firms’ employment and wage-setting policies on the level and change in immigrant-native wage differences in Canada. We focus on immigrants who arrived in the early 2000s, distinguishing between those with and without a college degree from two broad groups of countries – the U.S., the U.K. and Northern Europe, and the rest of the world. Consistent with a growing literature based on the two-way fixed effects model of Abowd, Kramarz, and Margolis (1999), we find that firm-specific wage premiums explain a significant share of earnings inequality in Canada and contribute to the average earnings gap between immigrants and natives. In the decade after receiving permanent status, earnings of immigrants rise relative to those of natives. Compositional effects due to selective outmigration and changing participation play no role in this gain. About one-sixth is attributable to movements up the job ladder to employers that offer higher pay premiums for all groups, with particularly large gains for immigrants from the “rest of the world” countries. |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27096&r=all |
| By: | Beltramo, Theresa; Dang, Hai-Anh H.; Sarr, Ibrahima; Verme, Paolo |
| Abstract: | Household consumption surveys do not typically cover refugee populations, and poverty estimates for refugees are rare. This paper tests the performance of cross-survey imputation methods to estimate poverty for a sample of refugees in Chad, by combining United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees survey and administrative data. The proposed method offers poverty estimates based on administrative data that fall within a 95 percent margin of poverty estimates based on survey consumption data. This result is robust to different poverty lines, sets of regressors, and modeling assumptions of the error term. The method outperforms common targeting methods, such as proxy means tests and the targeting method currently used by humanitarian organizations in Chad. |
| Keywords: | Refugees,Forced displacement,Targeting,Poverty,Chad |
| JEL: | C15 F22 I32 O15 O20 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:538&r=all |
| By: | Oğuzhan Okumuş, Mehmet |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of economic and socio-cultural pull factors on migration decisions of graduate students and highly skilled professionals with a specific focus on recent highly skilled Turkish immigration in Berlin. The main hypotheses of this study are that economic factors play a significantly more important role in the migration decisions of highly skilled professionals whereas socio-cultural factors have a significantly more impact on graduate student migration. The data are collected through an online survey and analyzed in the light of previous literature on highly skilled immigration. Compatible with the results of earlier studies, the findings reveal significant differentiation in the effect of economic pull factors on highly skilled professionals compared to graduate students, especially in the domains career opportunities, employment opportunities and expectations for a higher quality of life. Sociocultural pull factors appear to have insignificant difference despite being favored more by immigrants who moved to Berlin through an educational channel. Altogether, these results indicate the importance of diversified migration policies for the distinct needs of different highly skilled groups. |
| Keywords: | Highly skilled immigration,Brain drain,Germany,Turkey |
| JEL: | J61 J15 K37 O15 F66 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:1422020&r=all |
| By: | Seshan,Ganesh Kumar |
| Abstract: | This study examines the asset gains to households in Kerala, India, from two types of labor migration: moving overseas versus moving within India for employment. It draws on panel data from waves of a representative household survey conducted in 1998 and 2003. Migrant households as a whole experienced higher asset gains than non-migrant families over this five-year period. Contrary to theoretical expectations, asset gains were similar for households with an overseas migrant and those with a domestic migrant. Although less educated individuals tend to venture overseas, a wage premium over non-migrants enables them to earn as much in low-skill jobs abroad as more educated workers relocating within India can. |
| Keywords: | Urban Governance and Management,Urban Housing and Land Settlements,Municipal Management and Reform,Urban Housing,Educational Sciences,Labor Markets,Remittances,Financial Structures,Energy Policies&Economics |
| Date: | 2020–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9237&r=all |
| By: | Dotti, Valerio |
| Abstract: | Abstract We investigate the effects of (i) population ageing and (ii) rising income inequality on immigration policies using an overlapping-generations model of elections with endogenous political parties. In each period, young people work and pay taxes while old people receive social security payments. Immigrants are generally young, meaning they contribute significantly to financing the cost of public services and social security. Among natives, the elderly and the poor benefit the most from public spending. However, because these two types of voters do not fully internalize the positive fiscal effects of immigration, they have a common interest in coalescing around a populist party (or multiple) seeking to curb immigration and increase the tax burden on high-income individuals. Population ageing and rising income inequality increase the size and, in turn, the political power of such parties, resulting in more restrictive immigration policies, a larger public sector, higher tax rates, and lower societal well-being. Calibrating the model to UK data suggests that the magnitude of these effects is large. The implications of this model are shown to be consistent with patterns observed in UK attitudinal data. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Ageing, Policy, Voting. |
| JEL: | C71 D72 H55 J61 |
| Date: | 2020–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100226&r=all |
| By: | Wilson, Fernando; Stimpson, Jim P (Drexel University) |
| Abstract: | The adverse policy environment in the United States (US) has made immigrant communities particularly vulnerable to uncontrolled community spread of COVID-19. President Trump is using his emergency powers during the pandemic to push his broader agenda which includes locking down the southern US border to severely limit immigration. Immigration policies such as the ‘public charge rule’ may further disincentivize even authorized immigrants to seek care if they develop symptoms. The recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act will not provide any social safety net support to the millions of undocumented immigrants. Compounding these issues, the US economy is expected to contract substantially. Many construction, agricultural, and service workers are immigrants, and these industries will be severely impacted. The long-term impact of COVID-19 and commensurate health and economic impact on families, communities, and state and federal governments will be a topic of research for many years. Federal and state policies should pivot to find ways to improve access to healthcare for immigrants. |
| Date: | 2020–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:fmz8e&r=all |