The impact of changes in the marital status on return migration of family migrants

Many migrants have non-labour motives to migrate, and they differ substantially from labour migrants in their migration behaviour. For family migrants, the decision to return is highly influenced by changes in their marital status. Using administrative panel data on the entire population of recent family immigrants to the Netherlands, we estimate the effect of a divorce and remarriage on the hazard of leaving the Netherlands using a ‘timing of events’ model. The model allows for correlated unobserved heterogeneity across the migration, the divorce and remarriage processes. The family migrants are divided into five groups based on the Human Development Index (HDI) of their country of birth. We find that both divorce and remarriage increase return of family migrants from less-developed countries. Remarriage of family migrants from developed countries makes them more prone to stay. Young migrants are influenced most by a divorce. The impact of the timing of a divorce and remarriage on return is quantified graphically.     

Multiple Migration Flows of Romanians

Abstract

Most studies on international migration examine population movement between a country of origin and a destination. This article aims to show that migrants often change destinations, a less studied pattern of ‘multiple migrations’. This article explores how such migration occurs and analyses the variables accounting for it. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork research amongst Romanian migrants in Portugal, the article concludes that the growth in multiple migrations of Romanian migrants throughout Europe can be explained by a combination of migration policies and social networks, mediated by migrants’ level of education and type of occupation at the destination.     

劳动力流动对城镇失业的影响研究

文章探讨了家庭决策下农村劳动力流动对城镇失业的影响,认为劳动力回流会降低流入者的现存失业率进而拉低城镇总体失业率。基于2005年全国1%人口抽样调查数据,作者对城镇失业与其相关因素进行了回归分析。结果发现,就失业概率而言,农村流入人口远低于城镇居民;镇居民低于市居民;女性高于男性;年轻组远高于其他年龄组;受过高等教育的人口总体最低,但高校新近毕业生却较高。另外,区域发展模式影响其失业模式。失业水平在东北、武汉、重庆老工业基地出现了本地居民、农民工和总体均高的三高模式,在京、津、沪和珠三角地区出现了本地居民高、农民工低和总体居中的高低中模式,仅在国有、私营、和三资企业平衡发展的华东沿海地区出现了本地居民低、农民工低和总体低的三低模式。     

Selection,selection, selection: the impact of return migration

The evidence on the impact of return migration on the sending country is rather sparse, though growing. The contribution of this paper is in addressing various selectivity problems while quantifying the impact of return migration on wages of returnees using non-experimental data. Using Egyptian household-level survey data, I estimate the wages of return migrants controlling for several selectivity biases arising from emigration choice, return migration choice, labor force participation choice, and occupational choice following return. The findings provide strong evidence that overseas temporary migration results in a wage premium upon return, even after controlling for the various potential selection biases. However, the estimates underscore the significance of controlling for both emigration and return migration selections. Ignoring the double selectivity in migration would overestimate the impact of return migration on the wage premium of returnees, as migrants are positively selected relative to non-migrants, but returnees are negatively selected among migrants.     

Tackling Poverty-migration Linkages: Evidence from Ghana and Egypt

Are migrants able to use the migration experience to their benefit, that is to improve their livelihoods, and is this result nuanced by whether migrants are poor or non-poor? This paper explores these questions quantitatively using data on migrants and non-migrants from Ghana and Egypt. It describes the main challenges in the empirical literature and introduces a conceptual model to explore the links between migration and poverty. The empirical model accounts for the direct effects of migration on poverty and for the role of migration in moderating the dynamics of poverty. Results show the selectivity of migration with respect to subjective poverty and that migration can have a significant impact on helping people improve their livelihoods. The paper further finds that selectivity with respect to human capital depends on ‘reasons for migration’ and visa status. These findings enrich existing empirical studies by providing a clear estimation of sequential events and enable policymakers to better understand the processes behind migration and poverty.     

A Profile of the World's Young Developing Country International Migrants

Individual‐level census and household survey data are used to present a rich profile of young developing country international migrants around the world. They are found to comprise a large share of the flow of migrants, particularly among migrants to other developing countries, with the age distribution of migrants peaking in the late teens or early twenties. Detailed data are presented on the age and sex composition of migrants, on whether young migrants move alone or with a parent or spouse, on their participation in schooling and work in the destination country, on the types of jobs they have, and on the incidence and age of return migration. The results suggest a high degree of commonality in the youth immigrant experience across a number of destination countries. Recent developing country young migrants tend to work in similar occupations and are more concentrated in these occupations than recent older migrants or young immigrants who arrived at an earlier age. Nevertheless, there is also considerable heterogeneity among young immigrants with respect to school attendance and work in their destination country. The potential of international migration for building human capital is significant but far from being fully used.     

Migration as hope and depression: existential im/mobilities in and beyond Egypt

ABSTRACT

Recent scholarship has asserted that prolonged periods of ‘waiting’ or ‘stuckedness’ are becoming the condition of modern capitalism for many people. This article complicates this assertion by interrogating the affective life of migration, an act which offers the possibility of overcoming, but also reinforces, existential stuckedness. Using two ethnographies with young aspiring male migrants in Egypt, and older migrant men in the Netherlands, we reveal how migration, both before and after physical movement, is experienced through constant existential oscillation: between ‘‘amal’ (hope) that the good life is arriving, and ‘ikti’āb’ (an Egyptian understanding of depression) when a new blockage is met. Developing existing understandings of migratory experience and governance, the article argues that oscillation emerges out of ‘cruel’ migratory regimes which perpetually offer up the promise of the good life to aspiring migrants, while inhibiting the means of achieving it for the majority.     

The Finnish and Swedish Migration Dynamics and Transnational Social Spaces

Abstract

This article contributes to debates about the long-term development of migration dynamics. The argument is based on a study of the transnational dynamics of the migration flows between Finland and Sweden. The two countries provide a good case for studying the long-term development of migration patterns, since there has been a full freedom of movement and the migration patterns are well documented. The article argues that the postwar labor migration from Finland to Sweden created a transnational social space that still today facilitates migration between the two countries. Although Finnish citizens dominate the migration flows in both directions, the number of Swedish migrants has steadily increased. This new pattern can be explained by the development of the transnational social space involving an increasing number of mixed families.     

The Internetization of International Migration

The Internet has revolutionized our economies, societies, and everyday lives. Many social phenomena are no longer the same as they were in the pre‐Internet era: they have been “Internetized.” We define the Internetization of international migration, and we investigate it by exploring the links between the Internet and migration outcomes all along the migration path, from migration intentions to actual migration. Our analyses leverage a number of sources, both at the micro‐ and the macro‐level, including the Gallup World Poll, the Arab Barometer, data from the International Telecommunication Union, the Italian population register, and unique register data from a migrant reception center in Southern Italy. We also distinguish between economic migrants—those who leave their country of origin with the aim of seeking better economic opportunities elsewhere—and political migrants—those who are forced to leave their countries of origin for political or conflict‐related reasons. Our findings point to a consistently positive relationship between the diffusion of the Internet, migration intentions, and migration behaviors, supporting the idea that the Internet is not necessarily a driving force of migration per se, but rather an enabling “supportive agent.” These associations are particularly relevant for economic migrants, at least for migration intentions. Further analyses underscore the importance of the Internet in providing a key informational channel which helps to define clearer migration trajectories.     

Circular and Repeat Migration: Counts of Exits and Years Away from the Host Country

The importance of repeat and circular migration starts receiving rising recognition. The paper studies this behavior by analyzing the number of exits and the total number of years away from the host country using count data models and panel data from the German guestworker experience. Beyond the myth, more than 60% of migrants in the sample from the guestworker countries living in Germany are indeed repeat or circular migrants. Migrants from European Union member countries, those not owning a dwelling in Germany, the younger and the older (excluding the middle-aged), are significantly more likely to engage in repeat migration and to stay out for longer. Males and those migrants with German passports exit more frequently, while those with higher education exit less; there are no differences with time spent out. Migrants with family in the home country remain out longer, and those closely attached to the labor market remain less; they are not leaving the country more frequently.     

The effect of remittances on emigration intentions in Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey

Are remittances determined by altruism or enlightened self-interest, and do they trigger additional migration? In this paper these two questions are examined empirically in relation to data from Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco for households with family members living abroad. It is shown, firstly, that one cannot argue exclusively either for altruism or self-interest as motives, since for each country the data tell a different story and both motives can be identified as driving forces behind remittance behaviour. The general conclusion of this study is that the family ties and the net earnings potential of migrants have stronger effects on the flow of remittances than the net earnings potential of the households in the country of origin. Secondly, because the receipt of remittances has a positive effect on the emigration intentions of household members still living in the country of origin, the receipt of remittances may contribute to new flows of migration, particularly in the case of Morocco.     

改革开放后北京、上海、广州对流动人口的经济拉力因素的分析

本文以推拉理论建立多元线性模型并运用逐步回归的方法,分析改革开放后北京、上海、广州吸引流动人口流入的经济因素。结果显示流动人口主要依据微观经济因素做出流动迁移决策;不同城市对流动人口产生拉力的具体的微观经济因素不尽相同,即使有相同经济拉力因素的城市,拉力的大小也有差异;三城市的流动人口就业的分布不同,广州流动人口就业集中分布于第三产业,北京和上海则不然。     

Revising the Harris-Todaro framework to model labour migration from the Canadian Northern frontier

The Harris-Todaro model of labour migration was developed almost four decades ago, and since has become a classic method of migration analysis in less developed countries. This paper explores the applicability of the Harris-Todaro (HT) framework outside its traditional use, by modelling frontier-metropolis migration in Canada. If appropriate, the framework can potentially be used in other countries with similar regional dichotomies, such as Russia and Australia. The paper argues that the HT model is generally applicable in the context of migration from the resource frontier to large metropolitan areas of the Canadian south, although it requires several modifications. The classic HT model is extended to account for northern labour-force heterogeneity (Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal), the possibility of having or losing jobs in the declining and undiversified frontier economy, and living cost differentials. Further analysis is focused on Aboriginal migration from isolated northern communities. The plausibility of the modified HT model is demonstrated using an empirical test, in which the model is used to assess migration probabilities of Aboriginal labour migrants. These new insights into the mechanisms of frontier-metropolis migration could provide a better basis for developing planning strategies, aimed to sustain human capital in the Canadian North, and for optimizing welfare policies both in the North and in the South.     

Migration and Health Selectivity in the Context of Internal Migration in China, 1997–2009

Using data from the 1997?C2009 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we examine the ??healthy migrant hypothesis?? in a setting where internal migrants face significant barriers to movement. Going beyond much of the existing literature in the Chinese context, we use an appropriate comparison between migrants and non-migrants at origin, using detailed health measures, and data spanning a wider geographic and temporal extent than had been previously considered. Consistent with research from both international migration contexts and other internal migration settings, we find that migrants are positively selected on the basis of health, although the relationship between health and migration diminishes across time. The strongest evidence for health selection comes from a subjective self-reported health measure, although we also find evidence for selection against those experiencing acute health conditions. We speculate that the across-time differentiation may be caused by the rapid social, economic and policy changes in China??s economic reform era. Thus, we suggest that migration scholars should consider the changing macro context when theorizing about selection factors.     

Migration and the latino family: The union formation behavior of Puerto Rican women

This study examines the transition to first union among Puerto Rican women. I argue that understanding the behavior of mainland Puerto Ricans requires attention to family patterns in Puerto Rico and to the dynamics of migration between Puerto Rico and the United States. The study therefore is based on pooled data from comparable surveys undertaken in the two settings. These data allow for event history analyses that compare the union formation behavior of migrants with that of nonmigrants, and consider the role of migration in producing the observed union patterns. Multivariate models show that migrants are more likely than nonmigrants to form unions early and to enter informal unions. Additional analyses show that selective migration plays a role in producing this pattern. Overall the findings demonstrate the importance of using data from both origin and destination locales for understanding the behavior of migrant groups.     

Land and leña: linking transnational migration, natural resources, and the environment in Guatemala

This article examines the relationships between international migration, natural resources, and the environment. Rather than looking at environmental change as a cause of population movements, the article reveals how migration affects the environment in sending countries. Empirically, we rely on a case study in Guatemala. Although migrants and cash remittances make significant contributions to Guatemala’s changing economy, little is known about the relationships between migration and the environment in this Central American country—a country, which continues to have a large rural population and that relies heavily on its natural resources. Drawing on ethnographic research and household surveys in a Maya community, we reveal how migrants and their earnings, as well as their ideas, behavior and attitudes, affect land use, land cover, and firewood use. We reveal, for example, how in addition to investments in land for home building and pick-up trucks to help improve agricultural production, some migrant households purchase more land and often dedicate it to the cultivation of vegetable crops for local and foreign markets. Cultural practices and beliefs directly linked to land and the environment, particularly maize cultivation, also alter due to migration processes. And, despite the ability of migrant households to transition to more efficient fuels like liquid propane gas (LPG), we show how they continue to use firewood. In all, the study contributes important insights into the environmental implications of migration.     

The psychic costs of migration: evidence from Irish return migrants

Within the economics literature, the ‘psychic costs’ of migration have been incorporated into theoretical models since Sjaastad (J Polit Econ 70:80–93, 1962). However, the existence of such costs has rarely been investigated in empirical papers. In this paper, we look at the psychic costs of migration by using alcohol problems as an indicator. Rather than comparing immigrants and natives, we look at the native-born in a single country and compare those who have lived away for a period of their lives and those who have not. We use data from the first wave of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing which is a large, nationally representative sample of older Irish adults. We find that men who lived away are more likely to have suffered from alcohol problems than men who stayed. For women, we again see a higher incidence of alcohol problems for short-term migrants. However, long-term female migrants are less likely to have suffered from alcohol problems. For these women, it seems that migration provided psychic benefits, and this is consistent with findings from other research which showed how migration provided economic independence to this group. The results remain when we adjust for endogeneity and when we use propensity score matching methods.     

扶贫自愿性移民的迁移决策及主体选择性研究

扶贫异地安置是我国扶贫攻坚的重大举措,扶贫自愿性移民的群体特征分析是扶贫异地安置实践和理论中一个重要的课题.本文通过对北海市三个扶贫异地安置点的个案研究,在探讨扶贫自愿性移民迁移动机的基础上,对移民主体性选择进行了分析,说明了潜在移民成为现实扶贫移民的具体原因.     

Subsequent Migration of Immigrants Within Australia, 1981–2016

Australia is a major immigration country and immigrants currently represent around 28% of the total population. The aim of this research is to understand the long-term consequences of this immigration and, particularly, how migrants respond to opportunities within the country after arriving through the process of subsequent (internal) migration. The focus is on major immigrant groups in Australia, including persons born in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China and India, and how their patterns differ from persons born in Australia. To conduct this analysis, we have gathered data for a 35-year period based on quinquennial census data. We also obtained birthplace-specific mortality data for constructing multiregional life tables for the immigrant populations. Subsequent migration is important for understanding population redistribution, and the relative attractiveness of destinations within host countries. Our results highlight the importance of subsequent migration and the diversity of migration behaviours amongst different immigrant groups in the context of overall declines in internal migration since 1981.