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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Yi Fan; Ho Pin Teo; Yong Tu; Wayne Xinwei Wan |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the impact of social integration on immigrants' housing behaviours from a temporal perspective, using Singapore's differential public housing policies on immigrants as a quasi-natural experiment. With the support of a local town council, we conducted a survey on social integration among 1, 128 immigrant and local households living in public housing estates. In the public open rental housing market - primarily accommodating yet-to-integrate immigrants - we find immigrant renters live up to 3.04% farther from their workplace and pay lower rents up to 0.67% per additional year of residency. Such impacts are more substantial among minority ethnic groups. The results remain robust when using alternative subjective or objective measures of social integration. However, in the public resale housing market - primarily accommodating native and well-integrated naturalised citizens - we find that naturalised citizens face no price premiums relative to native homebuyers, implying no further effect of integration on housing prices after well-integration. This study extends the literature of spatial assimilation focusing on ethnic residential segregations and is generalizable to cities with few ethnic enclaves. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2607.17633 |
| By: | Alfano, Marco (University of Southampton); Goerlach, Joseph-Simon (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | Accounting for multiple responses to weather shocks drastically changes policy implications for adaptation to increasingly variable weather. Kenyan households react to temperature anomalies by sending migrants, by transiting to less climate-sensitive occupations, and by changing livestock species. Evidence suggests these are short-term adjustments, which respond significantly to common interventions. Randomised income transfers cushion consumption losses and decrease adaptation pressure, such as migration. Better infrastructure, instead, eases occupational transitions, reducing alternative adjustments, including migration and livestock composition. A model of joint migration, occupation, and livestock choices reveals long-term effects of these short-term shocks. Transitions to non-agriculture first act as a substitute for migration and subsequently as a stepping stone for later migration. |
| Keywords: | migration, weather shocks, coping strategies, development policies |
| JEL: | J61 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18857 |
| By: | Awor, Susan; Rozo, Sandra |
| Abstract: | Uganda hosts 1.96 million refugees and asylum seekers under one of Africa’s pioneering refugee policy frameworks, granting freedom of movement, the right to work, and access to social services. Yet, despite these provisions, most refugees remain in designated settlements rather than relocating to areas with greater economic opportunity. This paper examines the factors that shape settlement patterns and constrain mobility within Uganda’s inclusive, self-reliance-oriented model. It uses a mixed-methods approach that combines literature review, administrative data analysis, and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that incentives to remain in settlements and structural constraints to mobility increase aid dependence and limit refugees’ ability to pursue economic opportunities elsewhere. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to strengthen mobility-based self-reliance, reduce aid dependency, and further consolidate Uganda’s role as a regional pioneer in refugee policy. |
| Date: | 2026–05–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11368 |
| By: | Attila Lindner (University College London; ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies; IFS; IZA); Balázs Reizer (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies; Corvinus University of Budapest); Andrea Weber (CEU; CEPR; RFBerlin) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how a large-scale outflow of workers affect the reaming workforce. We use Hungarian administrative social security data on the opening of the Austrian labor market to Hungarian workers as a natural experiment. We find that the opening of the Austrian border increased wages by 1 percent and decreased employment by 5 percent in the close neighborhood of the Hungarian side of the border. We also show that the outflow of workers slightly decreased the quality of the remaining workforce in Hungary. Furthermore, we show that Austrian labor demand shocks have a positive impact on Hungarian wages as the increase of vacancies in Austria increases the wages on the Hungarian side of the border. |
| Keywords: | Labor demand, migration |
| JEL: | J23 F22 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:2514 |