nep-mig New Economics Papers
on Economics of Human Migration
Issue of 2023‒01‒02
five papers chosen by
Yuji Tamura
La Trobe University

  1. A gate to the world for all? The reaction of neighborhoods in Hamburg to refugee housings By Endrich, Marek
  2. Pay and unemployment determinants of migration flows in the European Union By António Afonso; José Alves; Krzysztof Beck
  3. Job quality gaps between migrant and native gig workers: evidence from Poland By Zuzanna Kowalik; Piotr Lewandowski; Paweł Kaczmarczyk
  4. Moving Up the Social Ladder? Wages of First- and Second-Generation Immigrants from Developing Countries By Pineda-Hernández, Kevin; Rycx, François; Volral, Mélanie
  5. Urban Exodus? Understanding Human Mobility in Britain During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Facebook Data By Rowe, Francisco; Calafiore, Alessia; Arribas-Bel, Dani; Samardzhiev, Krasen; Fleischmann, Martin

  1. By: Endrich, Marek
    Abstract: This paper analyses the political reaction of residents to refugee housings in their neighborhood. The city of Hamburg, Germany, experienced between 2014 and 2021 large refugee inflows that required many new housings. Openings of refugee housings led to an increase in the vote share of anti-immigrant right-wing parties in the neighborhood. The effect is persistent, driven by the exposure of residents to large reception centers and followup accommodations and amplified for facilities with a high share of male inhabitants. Results are robust to a matching estimator that accounts for an unbalanced distribution of housings. Neighborhoods with worse economic conditions, many migrants of other origins and a relatively large share of allocated refugee housings react more negatively to openings. With the finding that new housings come with electoral losses for the ruling party, it suggests that frustration by residents about a biased allocation is one contributing factor to the vote gains of right-wing parties.
    Keywords: migration,political economy,refugee housing,voting
    JEL: F22 D72 J15 H76
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ilewps:65&r=mig
  2. By: António Afonso; José Alves; Krzysztof Beck
    Abstract: We analyze the migration drivers within the European Union countries. For a set of 23 EU countries over the 1995-2019 period, we use Bayesian Model Averaging and quantile regression to assess notably the relevance of unemployment and earnings. We find that the existence of a common border increases the number of net migrants by 172 people per 1000 inhabitants. In addition, 1000 PPP Euro increase in the difference in net annual salaries increases net migration by approximately 50 and 42 people per 1000 inhabitants in a working age of both countries under uniform and binomial-beta model prior, respectively. Moreover, one percentage point increase in the difference in the unemployment rate is associated with an increase in net immigration by approximately 6 and 3 persons by 1000 inhabitants in both countries. These results are also corroborated with the quantile regression results. Hence, human capital inside the EU is moving in search of higher cross-country earnings.
    Keywords: Migration flows; Earnings; Unemployment; Bayesian Model Averaging; Quantile regression; EU
    JEL: J61 J62 E24 F15 F22
    Date: 2022–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:remwps:wp02512022&r=mig
  3. By: Zuzanna Kowalik; Piotr Lewandowski; Paweł Kaczmarczyk
    Abstract: The gig economy has grown worldwide, opening labour markets but raising concerns about precariousness. Using a tailored, quantitative survey in Poland, we study taxi and delivery platform drivers' working conditions and job quality. We focus on the gaps between natives and migrants, who constitute about a third of gig workers. Poland is a New Immigration Destination where networks and institutions to support migrants are weak. We find that migrants take up gig jobs due to a lack of income or other job opportunities much more often than natives, who mostly do it for autonomy. Migrants’ job quality is noticeably lower in terms of contractual terms of employment, working hours, work-life balance, multidimensional deprivation, and job satisfaction. Migrants who started a gig job immediately after arriving in Poland are particularly deprived. They also cluster on taxi platforms which offer inferior working conditions. The gig economy can be an arrival infrastructure, but its poor working conditions may exacerbate the labour market vulnerabilities of migrants and hinder mobility to better jobs.
    Keywords: gig jobs, platform economy, job quality, immigrant workers
    JEL: J28 J61 J21
    Date: 2022–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp092022&r=mig
  4. By: Pineda-Hernández, Kevin; Rycx, François; Volral, Mélanie
    Abstract: As immigrants born in developing countries and their descendants represent a growing share of the working-age population in the developed world, their labour market integration constitutes a key factor for fostering economic development and social cohesion. Using a granular, matched employer-employee database of 1.3 million observations between 1999 and 2016, our weighted multilevel log-linear regressions first indicate that in Belgium, the overall wage gap between workers born in developed countries and workers originating from developing countries remains substantial: it reaches 15.7% and 13.5% for first- and second-generation immigrants, respectively. However, controlling for a wide range of observables (e.g. age, tenure, education, type of contract, occupation, firm-level collective agreement, firm fixed effects), we find that, whereas first-generation immigrants born in developing countries still experience a sizeable adjusted wage gap (2.7%), there is no evidence of an adjusted wage gap for their second-generation peers. Moreover, our reweighted, recentered influence function Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions agree with these findings. Indeed, while the overall wage gap for first-generation immigrants born in developing countries is driven by unfavourable human capital, low-paying occupational/sectoral characteristics, and a wage structure effect (e.g. wage discrimination), the wage gap for their second-generation peers is essentially explained by the fact that they are younger and have less tenure than workers born in developed countries. Furthermore, our results emphasize the significant moderating role of geographical origin, gender, and position in the wage distribution.
    Keywords: Immigrants,intergenerational studies,labour market integration,wage decompositions,unconditional quantile regressions,employer-employee data
    JEL: J15 J16 J21 J24 J31 J61
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1204&r=mig
  5. By: Rowe, Francisco (University of Liverpool); Calafiore, Alessia (University of Liverpool); Arribas-Bel, Dani; Samardzhiev, Krasen; Fleischmann, Martin
    Abstract: Existing empirical work has focused on assessing the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions on human mobility to contain the spread of COVID-19. Less is known about the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the spatial patterns of population movement within countries. Anecdotal evidence of an urban exodus from large cities to rural areas emerged during early phases of the pan- demic across western societies. Yet, these claims have not been empirically assessed. Traditional data sources, such as censuses offer coarse temporal frequency to analyse population movement over short-time intervals. Drawing on a data set of 21 million observations from Facebook users, we aim to analyse the extent and evolution of changes in the spatial patterns of population movement across the rural-urban continuum in Britain over an 18-month period from March, 2020 to August, 2021. Our findings show an overall and sustained decline in population movement during periods of high stringency measures, with the most densely populated areas reporting the largest reductions. During these periods, we also find evidence of higher-than-average mobility from highly dense population areas to low densely populated areas, lending some support to claims of large-scale population movements from large cities. Yet, we show that these trends were temporary. Overall mobility levels trended back to pre-coronavirus levels after the easing of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Following these interventions, we also found a reduction in movement to low density areas and a rise in mobility to high density agglomerations. Overall, these findings reveal that while COVID-19 generated shock waves leading to temporary changes in the patterns of population movement in Britain, the resulting vibrations have not significantly reshaped the prevalent structures in the national pattern of population movement.
    Date: 2022–06–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:6hjv3&r=mig

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