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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Hillenbrand, Tobias (RS: GSBE MGSoG, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance); Martorano, Bruno (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, RS: GSBE MGSoG); Metzger, Laura; Siegel, Melissa (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, RS: GSBE MGSoG, RS: UNU-MERIT Theme 2, RS: UNU-MERIT Theme 6, RS: FdR Research Group ITEM, RS: UNU-MERIT - MACIMIDE) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data collected in May 2023 to better understand how Germans feel towards Syrian refugees. Generally, while feelings of different types of humanitarian concern (safety, material wellbeing, health, future opportunities) were similar, threat feelings (welfare, safety, culture) were slightly higher with the notable exception of less concern about labour market competition. We find that younger people, people with a university degree, or people with a migration background feel less threatened by the immigration of refugees with the most significant differences in attitudes towards refugees based on people’s social and political values. Respondents with stronger humanitarian orientations, higher trust levels and who do not place themselves on the right side of the political spectrum, show markedly higher levels of humanitarian concerns and lower threat perceptions. In addition to measuring attitudes, we also measured respondents’ solidarity towards refugees. Only 29 percent and 23 percent of respondents are willing to sign a petition in favour of financial aid to refugee camps or admissions to Germany, respectively. Respondents with higher levels of social trust are much more likely to express their support for more camp assistance than less trusting respondents. Regarding refugee admissions, a stark divide emerges along political lines, with individuals on the political left showing much greater openness to admitting refugees than those on the right. We find limited support for housing refugees in Germany, especially when asking for respondents’ willingness to accommodate refugees privately. |
| JEL: | A13 D63 I31 J15 O15 |
| Date: | 2023–09–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2023033 |
| By: | Hillenbrand, Tobias (RS: GSBE MGSoG, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance); Martorano, Bruno (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, RS: GSBE MGSoG); Metzger, Laura; Siegel, Melissa (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, RS: GSBE MGSoG, RS: UNU-MERIT Theme 2, RS: UNU-MERIT Theme 6, RS: FdR Research Group ITEM, RS: UNU-MERIT - MACIMIDE) |
| Abstract: | The issue of humanitarian migration has been among the most debated and divisive topics of 2023 in Germany and beyond, boosting the performance of right-radical parties, such as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Perceptions of the topic are, among other things, shaped by public discourse frames, which often either appeal to a humanitarian responsibility to provide protection or highlight potential immigration-related threats for host societies. This research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of these popular frames on humanitarian concerns, threat perceptions and preferences for refugee policies of Germans and on how these frames relate to demographic characteristics of the migrants. For this purpose, we analyze original data from a large-scale online survey experiment conducted in May 2023 in Germany with 2, 012 respondents, in which different frames are presented in the form of short videos on Syrian refugees in Turkish refugee camps. We find that str essing the humanitarian plight of the refugees drives up various forms of humanitarian concerns and the support for a petition advocating for more on-site assistance, while our threat frame impacts mainly perceived cultural threat. Increasing the salience of young men among the refugees leads to an erosion of support for refugee admissions. The treatment effects differ largely between respondents from East and West Germany. Our findings shed light on the nuanced dynamics of public opinion on humanitarian migration and stress that solidarity with refugees is not merely a function of sheer numbers, but also depends on the representation of refugees in the public discourse and the media. |
| JEL: | O15 A13 D63 I31 J15 |
| Date: | 2024–04–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2024007 |
| By: | KUMAGAI Junya; YOO Sunbin; MANAGI Shunsuke |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of migration between urban and rural areas on well-being, with a focus on overall life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction. Although previous research has established that migration to areas with declining population often reduces subjective well-being, little is known about how such urban-rural migration affects satisfaction across specific life domains. Using data from an online survey conducted among individuals in Japan, we find that migration to urban areas improves overall life satisfaction, resulting in a 7.39% higher life satisfaction compared to those who remain in rural areas. Additionally, such migration increases satisfaction in domains including jobs and wages, childcare, elderly care, and opportunities to meet people. In contrast, migration to rural areas does not improve well-being in domains such as environmental, security, and community satisfaction, which is hypothesized as advantages of migration to declining cities. Contrary to the common belief that people staying in rural areas have lower satisfaction with education and health than urban migrants, our findings reveal no significant disparity in these domains. By shedding light on domain-specific satisfaction, overall, our findings highlight the pronounced benefits of migration to urban areas. These results underscore the urgency for declining cities to improve their standards in these key domains to ensure long-term sustainability. |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:25013 |
| By: | Maystadt, Jean-François; Peracchi, Silvia; Sargsyan, Ella; You, Liangzhi |
| Abstract: | The majority of migrants remain within their own borders. While 281 million people have migrated in another country in 2020, the number of internal migrants is estimated to stand at around 763 million (UN DESA, 2016; IOM, 2021). At the global level, the existing literature has mainly focused on understanding the drivers of international migration (Karemera et al., 2000; Mayda, 2010; Kim and Cohen, 2010). Understanding the dynamics of internal migration is key for conjecturing future prospects in terms of poverty, food insecurity, urbanization, within-country inequalities and geopolitical instability. |
| Keywords: | migration; poverty; food security; urbanization; conflicts; climate change; economic shock |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:cgiarp:168105 |
| By: | Tahsina Akhter (University of Dhaka; Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada); Mashreka Mahmood (University of Toronto, Canada) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants are an important part of the global economy as more people leave their birth countries in search of better lives. In the global chain of labor and capitalist market systems, migration and precarious employment have become an inevitable outcome. However, research has shown that the experiences of migration do not always lead to positive outcomes for new immigrants in a new country. The present paper focuses on South Asian women (SAW) in Toronto to explore their experiences as immigrants in a developed country. The study employs literature-based ethnography as its method and a political ecology framework to understand the argument that precarious employment situations create an environment for SAW to become ethnic entrepreneurs, specifically food caterers, in their struggle for survival. The analysis reveals that the desire for freedom and alternative routes for survival after poor experiences in Canada’s labor market is a key factor in SAW’s development as ethnic entrepreneurs. These women weave a network of friends, family, customers, neighbors, emotions, and finances through their domestic skills of food preparation and entrepreneurship. This reveals the facts of an unequal system of aggregation in the city ecology of Toronto. Inspired by Andrew Causey’s (2016) Drawn to See: Drawing as an Ethnographic Method, this paper aims to capture the experience of a day in the life of a new immigrant family. |
| Keywords: | South Asian Immigrant Women, Toronto, Food Entrepreneurship, Political Ecology, Ethnography |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:raiswp:0479 |
| By: | Heckert, Jessica; Ceballos, Francisco |
| Abstract: | When individuals migrate– whether domestically or internationally, short- or long-term–migrants and their families experience dramatic changes in household dynamics and are exposed to new contexts and ideas (Hugo 2002). This phenomenon has driven a body of research focused on the linkages between women’s empowerment and migration, which primarily focuses on changes to the empowerment of wives when their husbands migrate (Fernández-Sánchez et al. 2020). To a lesser extent there is also literature on whether empowerment status contributes to the decision to migrate and migration experiences, as well as whether individuals might become more, or less, empowered during migration and at their ultimate destinations. Herein we synthesize these literatures and identify priority areas for future work. |
| Keywords: | households; literature reviews; migration; women’s empowerment |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:cgiarp:168186 |
| By: | Carlo Lombardo; Leonardo Peñaloza-Pacheco |
| Abstract: | We examine firm-level upgrading in Colombian manufacturing firms as a result of a high-skilled labor supply shock triggered by the Venezuelan exodus. Using a unique and confidential dataset from 2013 to 2019 and a shift-share instrumental variables approach, we find that the increased supply of skilled workers primarily drove high-skill hires, especially in R&D divisions. This skill-upgrading process boosted investments in R&D activities. Improved access to higher-quality inputs led to better production and organizational processes, product enhancements, and an increased likelihood of obtaining quality certifications, which serve as a straightforward objective measure of firm-level upgrading. Collectively, these changes were crucial for firms to increase their exports at both the extensive and intensive margins. This effect was driven by a rise in differentiated product exports, allowing firms to enter new and more sophisticated markets, particularly in high- and upper-middle-income countries. |
| Keywords: | firm-level upgrading, migration, trade, development |
| JEL: | D22 D24 F22 F14 F16 J61 L16 O14 O31 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11645 |
| By: | Ito, Rodrigo (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn); Chavarro Bohorquez, Diego (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn); Ciarli, Tommaso (Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn); Cowan, Robin (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn); Visentin, Fabiana (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn) |
| Abstract: | Studying and working abroad, internationally mobile scientists meet foreign scientists and become carriers of knowledge and foreign social capital. The benefits of scientific mobility may extend beyond those who experience it, benefiting non-mobile colleagues who collaborate with them. We investigate the role played by Colombian scientists who study abroad for a PhD in connecting non-mobile scientists with foreign scientists. Combining data from online CVs, scholarship programs, and Open Alex publications, we reconstruct the mobility path of 19, 158 Colombian scientists and their co-authorship networks from 1990 to 2021. Our results show that coauthoring with mobile scientists increases the propensity of non-mobile scientists to collaborate with foreigners. While the diaspora has been seen as a brain drain, we find that not only returnees but also the diaspora itself can act as bridges connecting local and foreign scientists. However, foreign collaborations tend to be short-lived and sustained only by the mediation of a mobile scientist. Results also suggest that the largest effects stem from mobile scientists who have remained abroad or have a strong circulation pattern between countries (i.e., diaspora and intermittent scientists, respectively). Our paper contributes to the mobility literature by investigating the social capital spillovers generated by mobile scientists. It has also relevant policy implications. Our results call for increasing brain circulation while reducing brain drain by using flexible conditions to return to home countries and increasing the links between mobile and nonmobile scientists. |
| JEL: | O15 O30 D83 |
| Date: | 2024–05–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2024009 |
| By: | Soares Martins Neto, Antonio (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Mt Economic Research Inst on Innov/Techn); Mayer Gukovas, Renata; Fouarge, Didier (RS: GSBE UM-BIC, ROA / Labour market and training) |
| Abstract: | We focus on mobile workers because of forced displacement and study how their occupational skills match skills in other occupations and how this commonality of skills relates to labor outcomes following displacement. Using large-scale register data from Brazil, we find that a higher occupational skills commonality shortens unemployment spells and increases the probability of transiting to another occupation. In addition, event-study analyses show that a one standard deviation increase in our measure of occupational skills commonality leads to a decrease of 1 to 3% in the probability of continuing unemployed after displacement or 10 to 20% of the overall variation in unemployment. However, although facing short periods out of the formal labor market, these individuals do not experience larger wages upon re-employment. Lastly, we explore the impact of skills mismatch on wages and find that transiting to occupations that are more similar in their skills content reduces the adverse effects of displacement. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J63 J65 O15 O54 |
| Date: | 2023–11–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2023038 |
| By: | Petru Vasile Gafiuc (Al I Cuza University, Romania) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the situation of Ukrainian refugees regarding their integration into the labor market in Romania, analyzing the current statistical data and the social measures taken by the central public institutions after the start of the war in Ukraine. Given that integration is a complex process, many significant challenges are encountered both among Ukrainian citizens and at the institutional level. A series of difficulties were highlighted both in the recognition of diplomas, professional certificates, the equivalence of studies, enrollment in professional training programs, as well as in information regarding the identification of jobs, labor legislation in Romania, various aspects of employment. Moreover, the language barrier, bureaucratic procedures, and the legislative differences between the two countries are among the main impediments to the integration process. Therefore, it is necessary to implement social support measures and develop coherent policies that promote the social inclusion of Ukrainian refugees, both for their benefit and for the Romanian community through their contribution to the economy and the elimination of the labor force deficit. Solid partnerships, the promotion of good practices between institutions and organizations, as well as the involvement of all social actors in the community are necessary conditions for the effective development of support programs that offer quality social services. |
| Keywords: | integration, labor market, equivalence of studies, professional training, inclusion policies, social integration measures, work mediation |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:raiswp:0425 |
| By: | Fransen, Sonja (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, RS: GSBE MGSoG, RS: UNU-MERIT Theme 6); Hunns, Alexander; Jaber, Tarek (RS: GSBE MGSoG, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance); Janz, Teresa (RS: GSBE MGSoG, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance) |
| Abstract: | Forcibly displaced people are at the forefront of climate emergencies worldwide. This article presents a scoping review of the growing literature on climate risks for displaced populations, with the aim to synthesize current knowledge, highlight gaps, and develop a research agenda that can inform evidence-based policy interventions. The synthesis, based on 29 peer-reviewed journal articles, shows that displaced populations are disproportionately at risk to be negatively impacted by climate hazards, which is largely due to their high sensitivity, limited adaptive capacities and, in some cases, heightened exposure. The geographical scope of reviewed articles is narrowly focused on Southern Asia with a paucity of studies on climate-vulnerable refugee hosting states in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. Moreover, the literature heavily relies on case studies, which impedes the generalizability and comparability of findings. We argue for an inclusive and comprehensive climate risk research agenda that systematically maps the exposure of displaced populations to climate hazards, provides theory-driven research on how the social vulnerabilities of displaced populations are shaped by their sensitivities to extreme weather events and their adaptive capacities, and that applies comparative cross-country research that also includes host community populations. An inclusive climate risk research agenda that takes into account displaced populations is essential for our commitment to the leave-no-one behind global policy agenda. |
| JEL: | O15 O18 Q54 Q56 I32 |
| Date: | 2023–12–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2023045 |