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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Koczan, Zs |
| Abstract: | In recent years there has been increasing interest in measuring subjective well-being in economics; most of the literature on immigrants has however continued to focus on `objective' measures of integration such as employment and education outcomes. This paper aims to complement these studies by analysing the life satisfaction of immigrants once settled in the host country, examining which elements of integration matter for life satisfaction. We find that in terms of simple averages immigrants appear to be less satisfied than natives. However, contrary to the results of some recent papers, this difference can be explained by factors related to economic integration, such as the details of their employment conditions, rather than cultural factors such as feelings of not belonging, which often loom large in the public mind. Also segregation does not affect their life satisfaction per se. While having host country citizenship appears to have a large, significant positive effect in a simple pooled ordinary least squares specification, exploiting a natural experiment of changes in the citizenship law in the host country we find that this is driven by a selection effect rather than an increase in life satisfaction due to obtaining citizenship. |
| Keywords: | Integration, subjective well-being, segregation, citizenship law |
| JEL: | J15 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1314&r=mig |
| By: | Koczan, Zs |
| Abstract: | We examine the question of whether identity is just a `label' or whether it matters in affecting outcomes, such as education, employment or political orientation, using data on Turkish and ex Yugoslavian second generation immigrants in Austria and Germany. We begin with an empirical investigation of identity formation, with a focus on parental investment in their child's identity, and use this to understand the impact of the child's own identity on own outcomes, a generation later. The results suggest that identity does not have a significant effect on education, employment and political orientation, thus suggesting that a strong ethnic/ religious minority identity does not constrain the second generation or hamper socioeconomic integration. |
| Keywords: | Identity, second generation immigrants, integration |
| JEL: | F22 J15 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1313&r=mig |
| By: | Georgios Papadopoulos (University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | This study, using data from the British Crime Survey (BCS), examines the microrelationship between immigration and victimization. We first find that, although immigrants are more likely to suffer property crimes than natives, this is well explained by the fact that immigrants exhibit demographic characteristics associated with higher victimization. Contrary to the above, immigrants are of lower risk of violent victimization. As violence is an expressive type of crime, where interactions between victim-offender pairs prior to the incident matter more than instrumental crime, the lower risk of violence can be attributed to different lifestyle choices associated with lower victimization risks. However, a closer investigation, decomposing violence in domestic, by acquaintances and by strangers crime, shows that this difference is driven by the lower crime immigrants suffer by acquaintances and by family members, which is not consistent with the `different-lifestyles' hypothesis. Nevertheless, we show that the aforementioned (unexpected) difference cannot be attributed to higher under-reporting by immigrants. We further show, that if immigrants did not face racially motivated crime, they would also face a significantly lower risk of victimization by strangers. Finally, we examine whether the lower victimization by acquaintances could be because more recent immigrants have fewer acquaintances. However, we argue that if this kind of `network' effect exists, it is actually quite weak. Therefore, all evidence suggests that indeed, immigrants face a lower risk of violent victimization because of lifestyles associated with a lower exposure to crime. Finally, using count data models we examine whether immigrants are disproportionately victims of repeat crimes. However, the results show that patterns of repeat victimization are generally the same between immigrants and natives. |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:aepppr:2012_42&r=mig |
| By: | Jaap Dronkers (Maastricht University); Matthijs Kalmijn (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we address both the occurrence of single-motherhood among migrant mothers in OECD countries and the effect of living in a single-mother family on the math scores of 15-year old migrant pupils in OECD countries. We use the PISA 2009 data with an international comparative perspective, which contains 14,794 migrant pupils coming from 54 origin countries (grouped into 13 origins regions) and living in 15 OECD destination countries. We select only two-parent families and single-mother families for this analysis. Pupils have a higher risk of living in a single-mother family when one parent was born in the destination country, when they speak the destination language at home, and when they have a low socio-economic status. The risk of single parenthood also coincides with the prevalence of single parenthood in the origin country but does not reflect the prevalence of single parenthood in the destination countries. After controlling for mothers’ socio-economic status and migration history, migrant pupils from single-mother families score 4 point lower on the math test than migrant pupils who live with both parents. This effect does not depend on the prevalence of single parenthood in the origin or the destination country. |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1309&r=mig |
| By: | Vivika Halapuu (University of Tartu, Estonia); Tiiu Paas (University of Tartu, Estonia); Tiit Tammaru (University of Tartu, Estonia) |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the factors that are related to attitudes towards immigrants in Europe, with a particular focus on the role of institutional trust in shaping these attitudes. We go one step further compared to previous studies by investigating separately two different groups of people — members of the ethnic majority and ethnic minority populations in European countries. We use data from the European Social Survey fourth round database for 27 countries. The main finding is that social trust is important for both groups, while trust in institutions is more strongly related to the attitudes among ethnic majorities. Other biggest differences between members of the ethnic minority and majority population are related to type of area where one lives, human capital and economic factors. The first two are more strongly related to the attitudes towards immigrants for the majority populations, while economic factors (especially labour market status) are more important for the minority populations in European countries. |
| Keywords: | immigration, attitudes, trust in institutions, minority/majority populations |
| JEL: | J61 J15 C31 P51 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2013014&r=mig |
| By: | Andrés Rodríguez-Pose; Viola von Berlepsch |
| Abstract: | Have Irish, German or Italian settlers arriving in the US at the turn of the 20th century left an institutional trace which determines economic development differences to this day? Does the national origin of migrants matter for long-term development? This paper explores whether the distinct geographical settlement patterns of European migrants according to national origin affected economic development across US counties. It uses micro-data from the 1880 and 1910 censuses in order to identify where migrants from different nationalities settled and then regresses these patterns on current levels of economic development, using both OLS and instrumental variable approaches. The analysis controls for a number of factors which would have determined both the attractiveness of different US counties at the time of migration, as well as current levels of development. The results indicate that while there is a strong and positive impact associated with overall migration, the national origin of migrants does not make a difference for the current levels of economic development of US counties. |
| Keywords: | Migration, National/Ethnic Origin, Institutions, Culture, Economic Development, Counties, USA |
| JEL: | F22 O15 R23 N91 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1305&r=mig |
| By: | Fukase, Emiko |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of employment opportunities created by foreign-owned firms as a determinant of internal migration and destination choice using the Vietnam Migration Survey 2004 and the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey 2004. Multinomial logit and conditional logit models are estimated to study both origin and destination-specific characteristics of migrants. The paper finds that the migration response to foreign job opportunities is larger for female workers than male workers; there appears to be intermediate selection in terms of educational attainment; and migrating individuals on average tend to go to destinations with higher foreign employment opportunities, even controlling for income differentials, land differentials, and distances between sending and receiving areas. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Labor Markets,Anthropology,Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement,Human Migrations&Resettlements |
| Date: | 2013–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6420&r=mig |
| By: | Govert Bijwaard (Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and IZA Bonn); Jackline Wahba (University of Southampton and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of the income earned in the host country on return migration of labour migrants from developing countries. We use a three-state correlated competing risks model to account for the strong dependence of labour market status and the income earned. Our analysis is based on administrative panel data of recent labour immigrants from developing countries to the Netherlands. The empirical results show that intensities of return migration are U-shaped with respect to migrants’ income, implying a higher intensity in low- and high- income groups. Indeed, the lowest-income group has the highest probability of return. We also find that ignoring the interdependence of labour market status and the income earned leads to underestimating the impact of low income and overestimating the impact of high income. |
| Keywords: | migration dynamics; labour market transitions; competing risks; immigrant assimilation; |
| JEL: | F22 J61 C41 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2013013&r=mig |
| By: | David Brown; Serife Genc; Julie Hothckiss; Myriam Quispe-Agnoli |
| Abstract: | Using matched employer-employee data from the state of Georgia, this paper investigates how employment of undocumented workers varies along the business cycle and how it differs from the adjustment in employment of documented workers. The cyclical component of undocumented employment is found to be significantly more volatile than the cyclical component of documented employment. Simulation results indicate that complementarities between documented workers and capital account for almost 90 percent of the difference in measured volatility between documented and undocumented employment. |
| Keywords: | business cycles, illegal immigration, undocumented workers |
| JEL: | J J61 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1319&r=mig |
| By: | John Gibson (University of Waikato, NIDEA and Motu); David McKenzie (World Bank, BREAD, CEPR, CReAM and IZA); Halahingano Rohorua (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Seasonal and temporary migration programs are widely used around the world, yet there is scant evidence as to their development impacts. Absent such evidence, it is difficult to evaluate whether the proliferation of temporary worker programs in recent years is a useful development. This article reviews studies that attempt to measure impacts of seasonal and temporary migration with a particular focus on evidence from the Pacific and Southeast Asia. |
| Keywords: | Circular migration; Development impacts; Seasonal migration; Temporary migration |
| JEL: | O12 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1308&r=mig |