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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Baert, Stijn (Ghent University); Vujić, Sunčica (University of Antwerp) |
| Abstract: | Many governments encourage migrants to participate in volunteer activities as a stepping stone to labour market integration. In the present study, we investigate whether this prosocial engagement lowers the hiring discrimination against them. To this end, we use unique data from a field experiment in which fictitious job applications are sent in response to real vacancies in Belgium. Ethnic origin and volunteer activities are randomly assigned to these applications. While non-volunteering native candidates receive more than twice as many job interview invitations as non‐volunteering migrants, no unequal treatment is found between natives and migrants when they reveal volunteer activities. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, volunteering, discrimination, hiring, integration |
| JEL: | J15 J71 D64 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9763&r=mig |
| By: | Aparicio Fenoll, Ainhoa (Collegio Carlo Alberto); Kuehn, Zoë (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests whether and how two education policies: (i) increasing the length of compulsory education and (ii) introducing foreign languages into compulsory school curricula, affect subsequent migration across European countries. We construct a novel data base that includes information on education reforms for thirty-one countries spanning four decades. Combining this data with information on recent migration flows by cohorts, we find that an additional year of compulsory education reduces the number of emigrants by almost 10%. Increasing the length of compulsory education shifts educational attainment for a significant fraction of the population from low towards medium levels. Our findings are thus in line with the fact that in the majority of European countries medium educated individuals display lower emigration rates than low educated individuals. Introducing a foreign language into compulsory school curricula on the other hand, almost doubles the number of emigrants to the country where the language is spoken and increases the total number of emigrants by 20%. Depending on the specific content of an education policy, "more education" can thus have opposite effects on migration. |
| Keywords: | migration, compulsory schooling, foreign language proficiency, education |
| JEL: | J61 I20 F22 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9755&r=mig |
| By: | Orrenius, Pia M. (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas); Zavodny, Madeline (Agnes Scott College) |
| Abstract: | Unauthorized immigration is on the rise again in the EU. Although precise estimates are hard to come by, proximity to nations in turmoil and the promise of a better life have drawn hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants to the EU in 2014-2015. Further complicating the ongoing challenge is the confounding flow of humanitarian migrants, who are fleeing not for a job but for their lives. Those who flee for better economic conditions are irregular migrants, not humanitarian migrants, but the lines between the two are often blurred. This policy brief surveys the state of irregular immigration to the EU and draws on lessons from the U.S. experience. It focuses on economic aspects of unauthorized immigration. There are economic benefits to receiving countries as well as to unauthorized migrants themselves, but those benefits require that migrants are able to access the labor market and that prices and wages are flexible. Meanwhile, mitigating fiscal costs requires limiting access to public assistance programs for newcomers. Successfully addressing irregular migration is likely to require considerable coordination and cost-sharing among EU member states. |
| Keywords: | Irregular migration; European Union; migration policy; refugees; asylum seekers |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:1603&r=mig |
| By: | Shekhar Aiyar; Bergljot Barkbu; Nicoletta Batini; Helge Berger; Enrica Detragiache; Allan Dizioli; Christian Ebeke; Huidan Huidan Lin; Linda Kaltani; Sebastian Sosa; Antonio Spilimbergo; Petia Topalova |
| Abstract: | Against the background of political turmoil in the Middle-East, Europe faces an unprecedented surge in asylum applications. In analyzing the economic impact of this inflow, this paper draws from the experience of previous economic migrants and refugees, mindful of the fact that the characteristics of economic migrants can be different from refugees. In the short-run, additional public expenditure will provide a small positive impact on GDP, concentrated in the main destination countries of Germany, Sweden and Austria. Over the longer-term, depending on the speed and success of the integration of refugees in the labor market, the increase in the labor force can have a more lasting impact on growth and the public finances. Here good policies will make an important difference. These include lowering barriers to labor markets for refugees, for example through wage subsidies to employers, and, in particular, reducing legal barriers to labor market participation during asylum process, removing obstacles to entrepreneurship/self-employment, providing job training and job search assistance, as well as language skills. While native workers often have legitimate concerns about the impact of immigrants on wages and employment, past experience indicates that any adverse effects are limited and temporary. |
| Keywords: | Euro Area;Migration, Refugees, Labor Market, asylum, asylum seekers, refugee, International Migration, General, Demographic Trends and Forecasts, |
| Date: | 2016–01–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfsdn:16/2&r=mig |
| By: | Hou, Feng; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | During the 1990s and 2000s, changes in immigration selection policies significantly altered the characteristics of new immigrants to Canada across a number of dimensions, including educational attainment at landing, immigration class, source region, pre-landing Canadian work experience and geographic distribution. These changes were designed primarily to improve immigrant economic outcomes at landing. This paper examines whether immigrant entry earnings improved as a result of these changes in immigration selection and, if so, which characteristics contributed most to the improvement. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and skills, Ethnic diversity and immigration, Job training and educational attainment, Labour, Labour market and income, Wages, salaries and other earnings |
| Date: | 2016–02–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2016374e&r=mig |
| By: | Bruckmeier, Kerstin (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Wiemers, Jürgen (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Research on welfare participation often shows significant differences between immigrants and natives that are often attributed to immigrants' higher risk of welfare dependence. We study whether immigrants in Germany also differ from their German counterparts in their take-up behavior conditional on being eligible for welfare benefits. The empirical approach intends (i) to determine eligibility for welfare benefits for a representative sample of the whole population of Germany using a microsimulation model (IAB-STSM) based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and then (ii) to estimate probit models of observed welfare benefit take-up for the sample of eligible households. Our simulation results show that non take-up rates do not differ significantly between several groups of immigrants and natives. Additionally, the probit estimations do not reveal a significant effect of being a migrant on the probability to take up entitlements. Hence, our findings suggest that after controlling for observed and unobserved household characteristics immigrants are not more prone to take up welfare benefits." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | I38 H31 C15 |
| Date: | 2016–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201608&r=mig |
| By: | Dmitry Grigoryev (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article presents the results of a study on the relationship of acculturation profiles of Russian-speaking immigrants in Belgium, the duration of their stay in the host country, and their level of socio-economic adaptation. The data obtained is the result of a socio-psychological survey of Russian-speaking immigrants in Belgium and was processed using latent profile analysis (LPA). It was obtained from three groups of immigrants with relevant acculturation profiles: integration, assimilation and separation. It was found that orientation toward the host society (assimilation and integration) has a positive association with a high level of socio-economic adaptation among immigrants, but the level of socio-economic adaptation for the group of immigrants with an assimilation profile is higher than that for the group of immigrants with an integration profile. Also, the level of socio-economic adaptation is higher for immigrants who have stayed in the host country for more than 5 years. |
| Keywords: | socio-economic adaptation, acculturation profiles, acculturation of immigrants, ethnic identity, labour market. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:58psy2016&r=mig |
| By: | Aslund, Olof (IFAU); Engdahl, Mattias (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | We study the labor market impact of opening borders to low wage countries. The analysis exploits time and regional variation provided by the 2004 EU enlargement in combination with transport links to Sweden from the new member states. The results suggest an adverse impact on earnings of present workers in the order of 1 percent in areas close to pre-existing ferry lines. The effects are present in most segments of the labor market but tend to be greater in groups with weaker positions. The impact is also clearer in industries which have received more workers from the new member states, and for which across-the-border work is likely to be more common. There is no robust evidence on an impact on employment or wages. At least part of the effects is likely due to channels other than the ones typically considered in the literature. |
| Keywords: | migration policy, immigration, labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9759&r=mig |
| By: | Rémi BAZILLIER; Francesco MAGRIS; Daniel MIRZA |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:leo:wpaper:2314&r=mig |
| By: | Eliane El Badaoui; Eric Strobl; Frank Walsh |
| Date: | 2016–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-71&r=mig |