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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Murat Guray Kirdar (Department of Economics, Boğaziçi University); Ismet Koc (Institute of Population Studies, Hacettepe University); Meltem Dayıoglu (Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University) |
| Abstract: | Although school integration of the children of economic migrants in developed countries is well-studied in the literature, little evidence based on large scale representative data exists on the school integration of refugee children—many of whom live in low- or middle-income countries. This study focuses on Syrian refugee children in Turkey and examines the underlying causes of the native-refugee differences in school enrollment. We also analyze employment and marriage outcomes, as they are potentially jointly determined with schooling. For this purpose, we use the 2018 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey, which includes a representative sample of Syrian refugee households. We find that once a rich set of socioeconomic variables are accounted for, the native-refugee gap in school enrollment drops by half for boys and two-thirds for girls, but the gap persists for both genders. However, once we restrict the sample to refugees who arrive in Turkey at or before age 8 and account for the socioeconomic differences, the native-refugee gap completely vanishes both for boys and girls. In one outcome—in never attending school—the native-refugee gap persists even for children who arrive before age 8. Data for Syrians from the pre-war period suggest that this might be an “ethnic capital” that they bring with them from Syria. Finally, we find that the timing of boys’ school drop-out coincides with their entry into the labor market, whereas girls’ drop-out mostly takes place earlier than their marriage. |
| Keywords: | refugees; education; school enrollment; integration; child labor; marriage; Turkey. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:2116&r= |
| By: | Andrej Cupak; Pavel Ciaian; d'Artis Kancs |
| Abstract: | We estimate wage differentials between foreign- and native-born workers across developed and developing economies. We leverage internationally harmonised microdata covering 21 countries, 20 years and 1.5 million individuals and employ counterfactual decomposition techniques. We find that vis-à-vis comparable workers born in developed countries, the workers born in developing economies are disadvantaged both in their home country labour markets and – if migrating – also in developed host countries. Wage differentials suggest the opposite for workers born in developed countries – their wages are higher not only in developed countries but for migrants also in developing host countries. After accounting for personal and job-related characteristics, at least 28% of the total native-to-migrant wage gap remains unexplained. The unexplained wage gap has increased during the last decade and can be attributed to the labour market discrimination, differences in unobserved job characteristics, variation in unobserved skills, and the institutional labour market framework. |
| JEL: | D31 J15 J7 |
| Date: | 2021–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lis:liswps:810&r= |
| By: | Pia Schilling; Steven Stillman |
| Abstract: | Exploiting the random allocation of asylum seekers to different locations in Germany, we study the impact of right-wing voting on refugees’ integration. We find that in municipalities with more voting for the right-wing AfD, refugees have worse economic and social integration. These impacts are largest for groups targeted by AfD campaigns and refugees are also more likely to suffer from harassment and right-wing attacks in areas with greater AfD support. Positive interactions with locals are also less likely in these areas. |
| Keywords: | immigrants’ integration, refugees, hostile attitudes, voting behaviour |
| JEL: | J15 J61 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9308&r= |
| By: | Vincent Geloso (Department of Economics, George Mason University); Linan Peng (Department of Economics and Management, DePauw University) |
| Abstract: | After the Civil War, the Democratic party carried an important electoral penalty from being associated with the war. To deal with this penalty, the party took increasingly anti-immigration positions to compete with Republicans. This led some Republican strongholds such as California to become competitive and also forced Republicans to embrace stricter immigration proposals. In this paper, we argue that adopting anti-immigration and raising awareness against immigration made California increasingly competitive in electoral terms. This electoral competitiveness can serve to explain the genesis of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Chinese Exclusion Act, Anti-Chinese Movement, Political Economy |
| JEL: | J15 N31 H59 |
| Date: | 2021–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dew:wpaper:2021-02&r= |
| By: | McCully, Brett |
| Abstract: | Nearly $2 trillion of illegally trafficked goods flow across international borders every year, generating violence and other social costs along the way. Some have controversially linked illegal trafficking to immigrants, especially immigrants without legal status. In this paper, I use novel data on nearly 10,000 confiscations of illegal drugs in Spain to study how immigrants and immigration policy affect the pattern and scale of illegal drug trafficking. To identify the causal effect of immigrants on trafficking, I construct an instrumental variable that interacts variation in total immigrant inflows into Spain across origin countries with the fraction of immigrants inflowing into a province. I find that a 10% increase in the population of immigrants from a given origin country relative to the mean raises the likelihood of illegal importing drugs from that origin country by 0.8 percentage points. Moreover, immigrants without legal status drive illegal drug imports, while authorized immigrants drive exports. To better understand the role of legal status, I exploit an extraordinary regularization of nearly half a million immigrants in 2005. Event study estimates suggest that granting immigrants legal status results in a decline in drug imports. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Drug Trafficking, Trade, Legal Stutus |
| JEL: | F14 F22 J15 K42 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:109610&r= |