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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Giavazzi, Francesco; Petkov, Ivan; Schiantarelli, Fabio |
| Abstract: | This paper presents evidence on the speed of evolution (or lack thereof) of a wide range of values and beliefs of different generations of European immigrants to the US. The main result is that persistence differs greatly across cultural attitudes. Some, for instance deep personal religious values, some family and moral values, and political orientation converge very slowly to the prevailing US norm. Other, such as attitudes toward cooperation, redistribution, effort, children's independence, premarital sex, and even the frequency of religious practice or the intensity of association with one's religion, converge rather quickly. The results obtained studying higher generation immigrants differ greatly from those found when the analysis is limited to the second generation, as typically done in the literature, and they imply a lesser degree of persistence than previously thought. Finally, we show that persistence is “culture specific" in the sense that the country from which one's ancestors came matters for the pattern of generational convergence. |
| Keywords: | beliefs; culture; evolution; immigration; integration; persistence; transmission; values |
| JEL: | A13 F22 J00 J61 Z1 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10024&r=mig |
| By: | Kamila Cygan-Rehm |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the role of home country’s fertility culture in shaping immigrants’ fertility. I use the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to study completed fertility of first-generation immigrants who arrived from different countries and in different years. The variation in total fertility rates (TFRs) across countries and over time serves as a proxy for cultural changes. By using a linear fixed-effects approach, I find that women from countries with high TFRs have significantly more children than women from countries with low TFRs. I also demonstrate that this positive relationship is attenuated by potential selection that operates towards the destination country. In addition, home country’s TFRs explain a large proportion of fertility differentials between immigrants and German natives. The results suggest that home country’s culture affects immigrants’ long-run outcomes, thereby supporting the socialization hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | migration, fertility, socialization, culture, Germany |
| JEL: | J13 J15 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp707&r=mig |
| By: | Furtado, Delia (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how inflows of low-skilled immigrants impact the tradeoffs women face when making joint fertility and labor supply decisions. I find increases in fertility and decreases in labor force participation rates among high skilled US-born women in cities that have experienced larger immigrant inflows. Most interestingly, these changes have been accompanied by decreases in the strength of the negative correlation between childbearing and labor force participation, an often-used measure of the difficulty with which women combine motherhood and labor market work. Using a structured statistical model, I show that the immigrant-induced attenuation of this negative correlation can explain about 24 percent of the immigrant-induced increases in the joint likelihood of childbearing and labor force participation in the U.S. between the years 1980 and 2000. |
| Keywords: | child care, fertility, labor force participation, immigration, tetrachoric correlation |
| JEL: | D10 F22 J13 J22 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8614&r=mig |
| By: | Fernández-Huertas Moraga, Jesús (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid); Rapoport, Hillel (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The current EU Asylum policy is widely seen as ineffective and unfair. We propose an EU-wide market for tradable quotas on both refugees and asylum-seekers coupled with a matching mechanism linking countries' and migrants' preferences. We show that the proposed system can go a long way towards addressing the shortcomings of the current system. We illustrate this claim using the recent problems regarding relocation faced by the European Relocation from Malta (EUREMA) program. |
| Keywords: | asylum seekers, refugee resettlement, tradable quotas, EU policy, immigration policy, international public goods |
| JEL: | F22 F5 H87 I3 K33 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8683&r=mig |
| By: | Dafeng Xu |
| Abstract: | This paper incorporates the behavioral labor economic perspective into the traditional Harris-Todaro rural-urban migration model. We study cases in which one's utility is not only determined by his own wage, but also by wages of others. In our theoretical models, rural-urban migration is driven by the expected utility differential, instead of the expected wage differential. We find that the conventional ``Harris-Todaro equilibrium' (in which the rural wage equals the expected urban wage) always exists, but there are two other possible equilibria, in which the rural wage can be either greater or less than the expected urban wage. Moreover, we show that if lower-income players gain utility from the wage differential, i.e., they are altruistic towards higher-income players, and the degree of altruism is sufficiently large, then the two equilibria in which the rural wage differs from the expected urban wage are stable, and the Harris-Todaro equilibrium is not stable. |
| JEL: | O15 P25 D64 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p536&r=mig |
| By: | Michael Siegenthaler (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Michael Graff (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Massimo Mannino (University of St. Gallen) |
| Abstract: | While Switzerland’s recent growth of employment was high in historical and international perspective, the reasons for this “job miracle” were not well understood. As the “miracle” was not anticipated by economic forecasters, it consequently resulted in systematic and persistent forecast errors. This paper shows that the “miracle” is related to a substantial increase in the labor intensity of economic activity. To this end, we present a number of stylized facts reflecting shifts and structural changes that affected the Swiss economy around 2000. Then, we discuss potential drivers of the “miracle” which are consistent with these facts. Finally, we demonstrate how they contribute to understand why, during the last ten years, forecasters systematically underestimated the growth of domestic employment. Finally, we highlight that immigration was not only a consequence of the “miracle”, but also an important cause, as it created additional jobs in Switzerland by raising local demand for goods and, most importantly, services. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Labor Market, employment forecasts, local multipliers, free movement of persons, Swiss job miracle |
| JEL: | C52 E24 J21 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:14-368&r=mig |
| By: | Catia Batista; Tara McIndoe-Calder; Pedro C. Vicente |
| Abstract: | Does return migration affect entrepreneurship? This question has important implications for the debate on the economic development effects of migration for origin countries. The existing literature has, however, not addressed how the estimation of the impact of return migration on entrepreneurship is affected by double unobservable migrant self-selection, both at the initial outward migration and at the final inward return migration stages. This paper uses a representative household survey conducted in Mozambique in order to address this research question. We exploit variation provided by displacement caused by civil war in Mozambique, as well as social unrest and other shocks in migrant destination countries. The results lend support to negative unobservable self-selection at both and each of the initial and return stages of migration, which results in an under-estimation of the effects of return migration on entrepreneurial outcomes when using a ‘naïve’ estimator not controlling for self-selection. Indeed, ‘naïve’ estimates point to a 13 pp increase in the probability of owning a business when there is a return migrant in the household relative to non-migrants only, whereas excluding the double effect of unobservable self-selection, this effect becomes significantly larger - between 24 pp and 29 pp, depending on the method of estimation and source of variation used. JEL codes: F22, L26, O15 |
| Keywords: | international migration, return migration, entrepreneurship, selfselection, business ownership, migration effects in origin countries, household survey, Mozambique, sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:unlfep:novaf:wp1401&r=mig |
| By: | Massimiliano Bratti; Chiara Conti |
| Abstract: | Immigration has recently been at the centre of the political and economic agenda. Economists have studied extensively the impact of immigration on several economic and social indicators of host countries. The effect of immigration on innovation and technical change is, however, not much studied. The existing work on the effect of immigrants on innovation is generally limited to the role played by highly educated immigrants, generally immigrants with at least tertiary education, and is mostly focused on the US. Yet, although in anglosaxon countries skilled immigration is a sizeable phenomenon -- according to the Docquier and Marfouk (2006) data the percentages of tertiary educated immigrants were in 2001 40.3% for Australia, 58.8% for Canada, 34.9% for the UK, ad 42.7% for the US -- this is much less the case in European countries, for which just the minority of immigrants are skilled. Just to take a few figures, according to the same source, the percentages of tertiary-educated immigrants were 16.4% for France, 21.8% for Germany, 15.4% for Italy and 18.5% for Spain. Now, although the existing literature has emphasized why there are good reasons to expect positive effects of skilled immigrants on the innovation of the receiving countries, it has much less to say about the general effect of immigrants, or of low-educated immigrants. In this paper, we make an attempt to partly fill the gap concerning the effects of overall immigration on innovation, and in particular of low-skilled immigrants, existing in the literature. In addition to providing evidence for a country which was exposed to a very fast and large wave of immigration during the 2000s -- Italy --, and for which evidence is scant, we also use a very small geographical scale of analysis -- Italian provinces corresponding to NUTS-3 regions --, which presumably enables us to better control for differences in institutional and socio-economic factors which are difficult to observe but which may simultaneously contribute to both attracting new immigrants and to increasing the innovation potential of a region. More importantly, unlike most papers in the literature which only investigated the effect of skilled immigration, (i) we first focus on the general impact of immigration on innovation, and then (ii) separately look at the effects of low-educated and high-educated immigrants on innovation. Last but not least, we tackle potential endogeneity issues by using a well established instrumental variables (IVs, hereafter) strategy based on immigrants' enclaves. |
| Keywords: | Immigration;Innovation; Patent applications;Regions; Italy |
| JEL: | J2 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p485&r=mig |
| By: | Tim Hatton |
| Abstract: | Historical experience suggests that when a period of rising immigration is followed by a sudden slump, this can trigger a policy backlash. This has not occurred in the current recession. This paper examines three links in the chain between the slump and immigration policy. First, although immigration flows have responded to the slump, and immigrants have borne more than their share of the burden, this has done little to protect the employment of non-Immigrants. Second, despite the recession for Europe as a whole, attitudes to immigration have not changed very much, and they have been influenced more by fiscal concerns than by rising unemployment. Third, while far right parties have used the recession to renew the political pressure for tougher immigration policies, governments have been constrained by the composition of immigration and by EU regulation. |
| JEL: | F22 F52 J15 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:686&r=mig |
| By: | Frank, Kristyn; Hou, Feng; Schellenberg, Grant |
| Abstract: | Studies of immigrant well-being primarily focus on economic outcomes. However, immigrants often cite a desire to improve their general quality of life as their main motivation for migrating. This study compares life satisfaction among recent immigrants in Canada with life satisfaction in their country of origin and with the Canadian-born population, and provides an evaluation of the role that national-level economic and social factors play in immigrants? life satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Health, Mental health and well-being |
| Date: | 2014–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2014363e&r=mig |
| By: | Özlem Güzey; Nevin Gültekin; Ogan Kýrsaçlýoðlu; Erman Aksoy; Ela Ataç |
| Abstract: | Approximate populations of non-European origin in Europe are 3 - 4% of the total population. That is, people of many cultural backgrounds come to live together in a diverse society forming cultural groups that are not equal in power (numerical, economic, or political). Thus in both popular and academic circles, anthropologically-inspired notions of cultural difference have been widely debated (Soriano, et al., 2004) with popular and social science terms such as "mainstream", "minority", "ethnic group", etc. (Berry, 1997) stressing on the fact that xenophobic fears of the ?other' must be overcome (Laachir, 2002) within the framework of culturally diverse societies. Yet, a very limited literature provides debates about the status of immigrants in Europe, witnessing outbreaks of perceived discrimination by a popular imagination of strong concentrations of muslim communities as 'threats to security'. But the researches show that anti-immigration policies result in the empowerment of social solidarity networks reidentified within a system of ethnic and/or belief formations and strong (sometimes violent) resistance. The focus of this study is on how individuals who have developed in one cultural context manage to adapt to new contexts that result from migration (Berry, 1997) as expressed through acculturation strategies. Acculturation is explained with the experiences of the global human community with the aim of preserving different cultures without interfering with the ?smooth functioning of society'. The objective of this study is to develop points of discussion on the analysis of the antecedent conditions of acculturation in terms of causes, processes, changes, and prospects in the case of Turkish immigrants living in Deventer, the Netherlands. The research findings prove the fact that there is an increasing element of ethnic pride among the Turks in Deventer originating from the factor of perceived discrimination as a by product of the new legislation in the European context. While terms such as 'cultural mosaic' is frequently used in political discourses, Turks are still defined as 'immigrant workers' in Deventer and their inclusion in the society is not desired. This situation is perceived as discrimination by the immigrant Turks and reflected as a reaction to the assimilationist perspectives of European cultural interaction policies. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Accurulation; Turkish Immigrants; Deventer |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p70&r=mig |
| By: | Marjan Petreski; Nikica Mojsoska-Blazevski; Maja Ristovska; Edi Smokvarski |
| Abstract: | The objective of this study is to investigate whether youth in households receiving remittances in Macedonia have a higher probability of establishing their own business. In addition, we investigated whether the effect of remittances on youth labour supply is homogenous across the genders and across ethnic and rural/urban divides. We used the DotM 2008 Remittance Survey and the instrumental variables approach to address the potential endogeneity of remittances with respect to the self-employment status. Two instrumental variables were used which affect remittances, but not the decision to be self-employed, except through remittances: a non-economic motive to migrate, and the existence of migrants’ network. Moreover, we overcome some of the deficiencies of the IV estimation by applying the Roodman’s conditional mixed-process (CMP) estimator. Results robustly suggest that youth in households which receive remittances have considerably larger probability of establishing their own business, ranging between 28% and 33%, compared to their non-youth non-receiving counterparts. The main policy recommendation is that the Macedonian government should start devising a strategy for channelling remitted money into more productive use, especially converting those funds into jobs for youth. |
| Keywords: | remittances, migration, self-employment, Macedonia |
| JEL: | F24 J21 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:pmmacr:2014-08&r=mig |
| By: | Laurent Gobillon; Matthieu Solignac |
| Abstract: | We investigate the difference in homeownership rate between natives and immigrants as well as its evolution in France using a large longitudinal dataset over the 1975-1999 period. For people staying on the territory the whole time (ie. stayers), we show that returns of characteristics change in favor of immigrants consistently with better integration and this is particularly true for South Europeans. Moreover, for immigrants, entries on the territory have a large negative effect on the evolution of the homeownership rate. Although entrants have a better education than stayers, they are younger and thus at an earlier stage of the wealth accumulation process. They also locate in large cities where the homeownership rate is lower, and the returns of their characteristics are lower than the ones of stayers. Finally, exiters have a positive effect on the evolution of homeownership rate but this effect is only one third of the one of entrants. |
| JEL: | J15 R21 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p558&r=mig |
| By: | Or Levkovich; Jan Rouwendal |
| Abstract: | Current developed economies' growth becomes increasingly dependent on the performance of innovation and skill-intensive industries. Therefore, the ability of cities to attract skilled or highly-educated individuals becomes more and more important for their growth and economic development. In this research we estimate a residential sorting model in order to shed light on the factors that determine the location choices of foreign skilled workers. We do so by estimating their valuation of various urban amenities in the municipalities of the densely populated Randstad area in the west of the Netherlands, and investigating which amenities increase the attractiveness of these municipalities. We also consider heterogeneity in individual preferences, and compare housing preferences and marginal willingness to pay for amenities between groups based on skill levels and origin. We find that job opportunities, accessibility, natural amenities and presence of historic monuments and buildings are highly valued by both domestic and migrants with high-education. Our results also provide evidence that social amenities, such as an existing community of migrants in a municipality, have an important role in determining the attractiveness of a location. |
| JEL: | J61 R11 R21 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p960&r=mig |
| By: | Mats Johansson; Pia Nilsson; Hans Weslund |
| Abstract: | Rural Europe is in a phase of huge transition both from a demographic and economic-structural point of view. This paper is focused on demographic and economic-structural changes in differing rural areas and the connection between these processes. This does not exclude the relations to urban areas as population changes in rural areas cannot be analyzed without taking the urban population development on board in the analyses. This is of course especially important with regard to the migratory movements where in-migration to urban areas in many cases is dependent of out-migration from rural areas. It has also been shown that rural areas have different migration patterns where many in the surroundings of big cities have experienced a positive population development as an effect of both natural population increase and net in-migration. The contrary is, however, the case in peripheral and remote rural areas where contrary development paths often seem to be the fact. It must here also be highlighted that out-migration also results in eroding reproduction potentials as out-migration of young women accentuate the effects of the drops in fertility. These processes are related to the economic-structural changes both in rural areas and urban ones. Natural population change has, thus, lost its primacy as the dominant factor behind regional population development both in positive and negative ways as the European regions ? urban as well as rural ? have been transformed from high fertility societies to low fertility ones. Instead it is migration that is the prime driver with regard to population development ? both in negative and positive ways in urban as well as rural regions. The 'rural exodus' is in many cases still the rule. In order to analyze and illustrate the differing demographic development paths and the differing preconditions for transformation an economic-structural typology developed within the ESPON/EDORA-project combined with an extended OECD accessibility typology will be used (the Dijkstra-Poelmann typology) by cross-tabulation. This means that distance and accessibility as well as economic and structural traits will be integrated in the analyses of expanding and shrinking regions. The time dimension will be from the beginning of the 1990s up to the latest possible year (2012). The analyses are based on the demographic and economic-structural development at NUTS3-level as this is the lowest level for using quantitative data concerning analyses of demographic and economic-structural changes at a meaningful geographical scale and the connections between these transformation processes in a quantitative way. |
| Keywords: | Shrinking regions; structural transformation; rural areas; migration; reproduction potentials |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p445&r=mig |
| By: | Marie-Laurence Flahaux; Cris Beauchemin; Bruno Schoumaker |
| Abstract: | Les enquêtes Migration entre l’Afrique et l’Europe (MAFE) révèlent une tendance à la baisse des migrations de retour en particulier en République démocratique du Congo (RD Congo). Les retours sont en grande majorité spontanés plutôt que forcés ou encouragés par les pays de destination. Seuls 16 % des migrants sénégalais et 15 % des Congolais ont déclaré être rentrés suite à des difficultés rencontrées en Europe, y compris en raison de « problèmes de papiers ». Les perspectives de réinsertion dans le pays d’origine jouent un rôle majeur dans les décisions de retour. Par ailleurs, les restrictions imposées à l’immigration par les pays européens ont tendance à réduire la propension au retour des migrants. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idg:posocf:515&r=mig |