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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Andrén, Daniela (Örebro University School of Business); Andrén, Thomas (Sveriges akademikers centralorganisation); Kahanec, Martin (Central European University (CEU)) |
| Abstract: | When economic crises destabilize labor markets, they offer unique opportunities to explore welfare dynamics and the interplay between partnership formation and social assistance. Using data from Sweden's 1990s economic crisis, characterized by high unemployment, expanding budget deficit, and a large inflow of war refugees from the former Yugoslavia, we examine state dependence in social assistance, which refers to the increased likelihood that households will receive benefits in the future if they have previously received them. Because Swedish social assistance eligibility depends on household-level resources and that partnership formation may correlate with unobserved factors, we focus on individuals who were single in 1990, prior to the recession, tracking their social assistance receipt and household composition over the subsequent decade. This approach allows us to compare individuals who remain single throughout the decade with those who form partnerships, assessing how gender, country of birth, and partnership choices affect state dependence in social assistance. Using a dynamic discrete choice model that addresses both unobserved heterogeneity and initial conditions, we found differences in structural state dependence both between and within the samples of Swedish-born (SB) and foreign-born (FB) individuals. Among singles, SB women exhibit lower structural state dependence than SB men, whereas FB women display slightly higher structural state dependence than FB men but lower than SB men. For FB individuals, the structural state dependence decreases when they partner with a SB individual but increases when they partner with another FB individual, suggesting that partnering with an SB individual may reduce the structural impact of prior welfare dependency, while partnering with an FB individual may reinforce it. |
| Keywords: | welfare persistence; social assistance; structural state dependence; unobserved heterogeneity; dynamic discrete choice model; GHK simulator |
| JEL: | I30 I38 J18 |
| Date: | 2025–03–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2025_005 |
| By: | Guillaume Blanc; Romain Wacziarg |
| Abstract: | For most of human history, until the fertility transition, technological progress translated into larger populations, preventing sustained improvements in living standards. We argue that migration offered an escape valve from these Malthusian dynamics after the European discovery and colonization of the Americas. We document a strong relationship between fertility and migration across countries, regions, individuals, and periods, in a variety of datasets and specifications, and with different identification strategies. During the Age of Mass Migration, persistently high fertility across much of Europe created a large reservoir of surplus labor that could find better opportunities in the New World. These migrations, by relieving demographic pressures, accelerated the transition to modern growth. |
| Keywords: | migra0on, fertility, growth, Malthus |
| JEL: | F22 J13 N33 O11 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:allwps:0008 |
| By: | Diallo, Mamadou Abdoulaye; Diallo, Soukeyna; Sika, Mashoudou Maman Chabi |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study was to assess the effect of return migration on labour market integration in Senegal. To this end, we based the study on the recent survey on international migration in Senegal (EMIS-2019), data for which were collected by the Consortium for Economic and Social Research (Consortium pour la recherche economique et sociale, CRES) in collaboration with the World Bank. We used the two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI) method and complemented it by an instrumental variable (IV) approach to account for the potential selection bias associated with return migration. The findings show that return migration had a positive and significant effect on labour market integration. Specifically, the results show that their migration status in the host country, the mode of their return to their country of origin, the skills they acquired in the host country, and their social capital played an important role in their economic reintegration after their return. This study therefore stresses the need for return-migration incentive policies and support for labour market integration of the return migrants. |
| Date: | 2024–08–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aer:wpaper:7401bbec-0ed2-431f-bee4-b27f21171b3c |
| By: | Gnimassou, Blaise |
| Abstract: | Contrary to popular belief, many Africans who migrate stays in Africa. In a context of low trade openness between African countries and high differences in the prices of goods and factors, intra-African immigration could theoretically play an important role. This paper aims to study the impact of intra-African immigration on labour productivity in Africa, as well as its macroeconomic and sectoral components. Empirically, I rely on a panel of 187 countries, including 53 African countries, over the period 19902019, and a gravity-based 2SLS approach to deal with endogeneity. The results show that intra-African immigration has a positive, significant, and robust impact on labour productivity in Africa. This impact is greater than the effect of immigration in a global sample, and essentially passes through the improvement in total factor productivity and capital efficiency. While immigration tends to deteriorate capital productivity in the world sample, intra-African immigration improves capital productivity in Africa. Furthermore, the results reveal that the service sector is the one that benefits from the positive effect of intra-African immigration in Africa. |
| Date: | 2024–04–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aer:wpaper:24a28f5a-7524-4b33-96b5-918ed203dd92 |
| By: | Athanasia Chalari |
| Abstract: | One of Brexit’s aftermaths, has affected those UK residents who had been identified as ‘EU citizens’ prior Brexit, and re-identified as ‘immigrants’ after Brexit. Based on the case of 30 indepth interviews with Greeks (European citizens), residing in UK between 5 and 20 years, this study explores identity transition as participants negotiate their citizenship and immigration identities. The main findings of this phenomenological study depict four aspects of identity negotiations (primarily involving ethnic, citizenship and immigration identities): a) erroneous resemblance between civic and cultural European identity, b) tendencies of prejudice towards non-European identities, c) coherent albeit unproblematic lack of belonging towards the host culture and d) underlying conflicting identity perceptions and experiences signalling ongoing identity(ies) in transition. |
| Keywords: | Brexit, transitional, citizenship, immigration, ethnic identities |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:206 |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (Uppsala University, Uppsala Center for Labor Studies (UCLS), the Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy (IFAU), IZA, CReAM); Karimi, Arizo (Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU); Sundberg, Anton (Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU) |
| Abstract: | We present evidence that shared institutional and economic contexts may be at least as im portant as culturally rooted gender equality norms for the size of the motherhood penalty. Our study covers child migrants and children of immigrants in Sweden, and while the results point to a moderate but statistically robust negative association between source country gender equality and the labor market impact of motherhood, the overall picture is more one of similarity across highly diverse groups. All groups of mothers exhibit qual itatively comparable labor market trajectories following first childbirth, but penalties are somewhat greater among those descending from the most gender unequal societies. |
| Keywords: | Motherhood penalty; Cultural norms; Earnings inequality; |
| JEL: | J13 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–02–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_001 |