Return Migration in Africa and the Relationship between Educational Attainment and Labor Market Success: Evidence from Uganda

The return migration of skilled professionals has been suggested as a policy instrument suitable for reversing the large‐scale emigration of skilled professionals from African countries. However, there are no empirical studies showing how migrant professionals from Africa are reintegrated into the labor market after they return. This study examines the relationship between educational attainment and the likelihood of employment among native‐born African migrants returning home from abroad. The study focuses on the evidence from Uganda since this country has one of the longest histories of skilled migration in Africa. The results show that returning migrants with university degrees and vocational credentials are more likely to be employed than their nonmigrant and immigrant counterparts. However, this employment advantage was not observed among returning migrants with secondary schooling or below. Furthermore, the results show that returning migrants are generally more likely to be employed as district employment rates increase.     

Intergenerational Exchange Between Parents and Migrant and Nonmigrant Sons in Rural China

This investigation examined whether intergenerational exchanges of time and money resources between older parents and their adult sons in rural China were conditioned on sons' migration status. Data derived from 2001 and 2003 waves of a longitudinal study of 1,126 parents, aged 60 and older, living in rural areas of Anhui Province, China, and their 2,724 adult sons. Random‐effects regression analysis showed that marginal financial returns to parents of providing grandchild care services and financial assistance were greater from migrant sons than from nonmigrant sons. We explain these results in terms of strategic investments in the earning potential of migrant sons and the bargaining power wielded by grandparents who care for dependent children of migrants.     

The new rural-urban labor mobility in China: Causes and implications

As the Chinese economy reforms, a huge new floating population of rural-urban migrants is transforming the urban labor force. This article explores some of the most important reasons for the emergence of the floating population in China. We argue that the neoclassical model alone is not adequate to explain the massive rural-urban internal migration underway in China. Instead, ideas drawn from both sociological theories of segmented markets and institutional economics are used to supplement the standard neoclassical explanation. We found that Chinese policy reforms in both rural and urban areas decreased the balkanization of labor markets and opened up employment opportunities for many rural-urban migrants. In rural areas, a set of agricultural market reforms, starting in 1978, increased farm incomes and simultaneously produced a large surplus labor supply. In urban areas, reforms beginning in the 1980s created an effective demand for rural migrants. Of particular importance was the development of a contract labor system and the emergence of a private sector.     

Migrant-nonmigrant differentials in socioeconomic status,fertility and family planning in Nepal

This study identifies the socioeconomic characterisitics of immigrants in Nepal, their fertility, and the incidence of family planning. These characterisitics are contrasted with the receiving or nonmigrant population and inferences drawn regarding the probable social and demographic impact immigrants may have on the "receiving" population. Demographic surveys were conducted annually from 1975 through 1978 in the Hills and Terai by the research and evaluation unit of the Family Planning/Maternal Child Health (FR/MCH) Project. In each of these geographic areas, all districts were matched on a set of social and demographic characteristics. 2 districts were then selected from each area on the basis of their similarity to each other. The sample design for all districts involved selection of panchayats (a political unit roughly equivalent to a country) and their wards (villages) on the basis of a procedure which refers to a selection of units based upon probabilities proportional to size of the population of the units. Currently married women aged 15-44 in all households of the secondary sampling units, i.e., wards, were interviewed. Both migrant women and their husbands had a higher level of educational attainment than nonmigrant women and their husbands. Indian migrants had higher proportions in the largest landholding groups than nonmigrant and lower proportions who are landless. The differential was maintained among Indians who had lived in the Terai for 10 years or less as well as 11 years or more. This finding was particularly striking since Indian migrants make up 25% of the sample. Current marital fertility (as measured by age specific and total fertility rates) was highest among Indian migrants, but cumulative fertility or past reproductive performance (as measured by the mean number of children ever-born) was highest among migrants from "other districts." With the exception of the youngest age group, migrants from "other districts" have higher proportion of "ever users" and "current users" of family planning than nonmigrants or migrants from India throughout the age structure. The highest proportion for both "ever users" and "current users" was reached at ages 35-39 years. Indian migrants in contrast had the lowest proportions of "ever users" and "current users" throughout the age structure (with the exception of the age group 35-39).     

The Labor Market Participation of Sandwich Generation Italian Women

We empirically analyzed the labor market participation of Italian women, with special emphasis on the role of intergenerational family links. Older relatives, on the one hand, discourage the work participation of women by requiring care; on the other hand they may provide household services favoring labor supply. We studied this dual impact estimating a trivariate probit model where the three choices to be in the labor force, to use informal help from older relatives and to care for them are jointly determined. Our estimates show that care duties towards members of the previous generation hinder the labor market participation of Italian women, and that informal help received from older relatives strongly increases their probability of being engaged in paid work.

Rethinking care through social reproduction: articulating circuits of migration

Care has come to dominate much feminist research on globalized migrations and the transfer of labor from the South to the North, while the older concept of reproduction had been pushed into the background but is now becoming the subject of debates on the commodification of care in the household and changes in welfare state policies. This article argues that we could achieve a better understanding of the different modalities and trajectories of care in the reproduction of individuals, families, and communities, both of migrant and nonmigrant populations by articulating the diverse circuits of migration, in particular that of labor and the family. In doing this, I go back to the earlier North American writing on racialized minorities and migrants and stratified social reproduction. I also explore insights from current Asian studies of gendered circuits of migration connecting labor and marriage migrations as well as the notion of global householding that highlights the gender politics of social reproduction operating within and beyond households in institutional and welfare architectures. In contrast to Asia, there has relatively been little exploration in European studies of the articulation of labor and family migrations through the lens of social reproduction. However, connecting the different types of migration enables us to achieve a more complex understanding of care trajectories and their contribution to social reproduction.     

What Human Capital,Which Migrants? Returned Skilled Migration to Slovakia From the UK1

This article contributes to the understanding of skilled labor migration by exploring some of the differences in the economic behavior of three contrasting groups of returned skilled labor migrants from Slovakia to the United Kingdom: professionals and managers; students; and au pairs. Formal professional experiences and training provide only limited understanding of the value of working/studying abroad. Instead, there is a need to look at particular competences, such as interpersonal skills and self‐confidence, as well as the role of social recognition. The empirical results also emphasize the importance of spatiality and temporality when analyzing skilled labor migration.     

Social capital and economic integration of migrants in urban China

Based on data from a 2005 survey conducted in Shanghai, China, this research examines the role of social capital in income inequality between rural migrants and urbanites. We find strong income return on social capital, in particular on social capital from strong ties. We also observe a great disparity in social capital possession between rural migrants and urban local residents. Although social capital from strong ties seems to be more important for rural migrants than for urbanites, local ties and high-status ties do not seem to benefit rural migrants. Hence, migrants not only suffer severe social capital deficits but also capital return deficits. Given the strong income returns on social capital and the substantial differences in access to and return on social capital between migrants and urban residents, social capital is consequently found to explain a large part of the income inequality between the two groups. Overall, our findings reveal macro-structural effects on the role of social capital in labor market stratification. In China, the lack of formal labor market mechanisms continues to create both a strong need for and opportunities for economic actions to be organized around informal channels via social relations. Yet, the long-standing institutional exclusion of migrants caused by the household registration system has resulted in pervasive social exclusion and discrimination which have substantially limited rural migrants’ accumulation and mobilization of social capital. Under these conditions, social capital reinforces the economic inequality between migrants and urban residents in China. Such empirical evidence adds to our understanding of the role of social capital in the economic integration of migrants and in shaping intergroup inequality in general.     

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL CAPITAL ON THE EARNINGS OF PUERTO RICAN MIGRANTS

There is a paucity of studies examining the relationship between Puerto Ricans' social capital and their earnings. I utilized data from the Latin American Migration Project (collected in 1998 and 1999) to test five hypotheses derived from social capital theory to predict the hourly earnings of Puerto Rican migrants. My study illustrates that Puerto Rican migrants' social capital is positively related with their earnings. Interestingly, the social capital effects only pertain to Puerto Rican females. Additionally, Puerto Rican migrants do not benefit from ethnic solidarity in terms of increased wages. My analyses point toward social capital's ability to provide important labor market information to Puerto Rican females, which they appear to use to acquire jobs paying higher wages.
Social capital theory has been applied to many different phenomenon including banking, education, immigration, labor markets, and nation building ( Massey et al. 1987 ; Coleman 1988 ; Uzzi 1999 ; Fernandez, Castilla, and Moore 2000 ; Putnam 2000 ). Within the labor market, social capital has been found to be related with earnings, employment, formal employment, and job tenure ( Mier and Giloth 1986 ; Donato, Durand, and Massey 1992 ; Aguilera 1999; 2003 ; Philips and Massey 1999 ; Aguilera and Massey 2003 ). Within the immigration field, social capital has been linked with the migration process, labor market outcomes, and attainment of citizenship ( Massey et al. 1987 ; Baker 2000 ; Aguilera and Massey 2003 ; Fussell 2004 ). Unfortunately, Puerto Ricans have been unstudied within this massive literature about social capital. Additionally, gender differences in returns to social capital are only just beginning to be recognized and there is little agreement as to whether males or females benefit most from social capital. I studied the relationship between social capital and labor market outcomes of Puerto Rican migrants, paying special attention to differences in gender.     

Migration between Canada and the United States, 1970-85: some new estimates

The author applies the revised UN definition of what constitutes an emigrant to migration data on moves between Canada and the United States over the period 1970-1985. "The effect of changing to the UN definition is dramatic, and differences between old and new estimates are not systematic.... If these findings stand up when all migrants are included, using the UN definition, then the much larger flows suggest that the effects on the composition and characteristics of the nonmigrant population of Canada warrant investigation."     

THE TRANSNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIES OF IMMIGRANT POLITICS: Insights from a Comparative Study of Migrant Grassroots Organizing1

Greater global interconnectedness produces a transformation in the ways in which groups constitute and interpret the boundaries of community formation and political practice. This article considers the ways in which a group engages (or not) with the possibilities for transnational identity formation and border‐crossing politics granted by the changing structures of the global order. A comparative analysis identifies similarities and differences in the patterns of community formation and political engagement of Salvadoran migrants settled across different urban centers of North America. Variations in the territorial orientation and scales of immigrant political practice are explained by the national and city‐level contexts of immigrant reception, the institutional opportunity structure in which migrant groups are embedded, and the nature of relations between migrants and their migrant and nonmigrant institutional interlocutors in places of settlement and their country of origin.     

Religious Conservatism and Women’s Market Behavior Following Marriage and Childbirth

This study explores the effect of religious conservatism on the labor force behavior of women who marry or add a new child to their household, using the 1988 – 1993 National Survey of Families and Households (N = 3,494). We model changes in labor supply, occupation, and wages as a function of either conservative denominational membership or conservative religious belief, holding other economic and demographic characteristics constant. Among Whites, conservative denomination did decrease labor supply following marriage or a marital birth, whereas conservative religious beliefs had larger influences on occupation choice and wages. Among Blacks, conservative denomination increased labor supply following marital births, but neither denomination nor belief affected occupation or wage growth. Results show the significance of religious ideology for understanding continuing gender inequality.     

The Second Generation in Germany: Between School and Labor Market1

The German “mode of integration” after World War II has been to include migrants and their offspring into general societal institutions. This can be stated despite differences between federal states in some aspects of migrant integration (e.g., the educational sector). Migrant children normally attend the same schools and classes as their German age peers, they participate in the dual system of vocational training, and there are only a few limitations in labor market access. The second generation in Germany consists mainly of children of the “guestworkers” recruited in southern and southeastern European countries from the 1950s onwards. It is not easy to obtain information about their numbers and their socioeconomic position, as most statistical data distinguish only between foreigners and Germans. The achieved integration status of the second generation varies between areas: obvious problems in the educational system go along with considerable progress in the vocational training system and in the labor market. Children of Turkish migrants are the most disadvantaged group among the second generation.     

Nigerians in China: Health maintenance,circulation and everyday transnationalism in Guangdong Province

The challenges facing Africans in Chinese cities have been examined from different perspectives, including healthcare-related challenges and barriers. However, how they navigate health problems through circulation and transnational practices has received scant attention. The article explored the importance of circulation and everyday transnationalism in health maintenance using qualitative data from 37 Nigerians in Guangdong Province, China. It revealed that transnational practices involving the flows of people, medicinal commodities and information were crucial in managing their health issues with circulating migrants, family members and healthcare professionals at home playing important roles. Circular migrants import herbal medicines and hard-to-acquire pharmaceutical drugs between Nigeria and China, family members and relatives also send over-the-counter drugs to migrants and health professionals in Nigeria supply medical information through transnational consultation. The article advanced the literature as it responds to the growing call for adopting a transnational lens for interrogating the link between migration and health.     

LABOR SUPPLY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MARRIED HETEROSEXUAL WOMEN AND PARTNERED LESBIANS: A SEMI‐PARAMETRIC DECOMPOSITION APPROACH

Using 2000 U.S. Census data we illustrate the importance of accounting for household specialization in lesbian couples when examining labor supply differences between heterosexual married and partnered lesbian women. Specifically, we find the labor supply gap is substantially larger between married women and partnered lesbian women who specialize in market production (primary earners) than between married women and partnered lesbian women who specialize in household production (secondary earners). Applying a semi‐parametric decomposition approach we show that controlling for children significantly reduces the gap between married women and secondary lesbian earners both in terms of the decision to remain attached to the labor market (the extensive margin) and annual hours of work conditional on working (the intensive margin). Further, the effect of controlling for children primarily reduces the percentage of secondary lesbian earners working extremely high annual hours. (JEL J15, J16, J22)     

Jobs for Mothers: Married Women's Labor Force Reentry and Part-Time,Temporary Employment in Japan

This paper explains the increase in middle-aged women reentering the labor force in Japan and their concentration in part-time or temporary employment. Existing explanations attribute women's concentration in part-time employment too narrowly to supply or demand factors. In Japan, both the labor supply of middle-aged women and the demand for part-time workers have increased, but these conditions channel middle-aged women into part-time or temporary employment only when systematic barriers obstruct their access to full-time jobs. Because it plays an important role in women's employment decisions, the rigidity of standard, full-time employment needs greater attention in studies of nonstandard, atypical types of work.     

Female Labor Migrants to Shanghai: Temporary “Floaters” or Potential Settlers?1

Using data on 54,373 migrants from the Fifth Sampling Survey of the Floating Population of Shanghai, this article isolates a group of 32,967 rural labor migrants who hold rural household registrations and whose previous occupations were in agriculture, and focuses on the women among them. The demographic and occupational characteristics of these 9,124 women are described, demonstrating that migration to Shanghai is a highly gendered process, with men and women working in different occupations and sectors. Moreover, important differences are found to exist between unmarried and married female rural labor migrants that indicate that the latter are probably accompanying and working with their migrant husbands. A significant proportion of female “social” migrants also exhibit characteristics that indicate that they are the spouses of male rural labor migrants, bringing to over one third the proportion of rural labor migrants to Shanghai who could be migrating as couples. These couples and their children may be the vanguard in a transition from temporary labor migration to settlement in China's large cities.     

The rights of migrant workers: Economics,politics and ethics

The labour immigration policies of high‐income countries are characterized by trade‐offs between openness to admitting migrant workers and some of the rights granted to migrants after admission. This empirical observation lies at the heart of the author's 2013 book, The price of rights: Regulating international labor migration. In this article, he reviews its main findings, arguments and policy implications and responds to a critical review of the book that was published in the International Labour Review in 2015. He concludes with a plea for more open debate on the linkages between migrant rights, labour migration and development among national and international organizations concerned with these issues.     

THE COMPETITIVE RETURNS TO THE GLOBAL SEARCH FOR TALENT: PROFESSIONAL SPORTS MARKETS AND FOREIGNERS

We examine the geographical and racial diversity of a market's labor supply. While the likely impact of expanding supply is to increase the level of productivity, it is not obvious what impact the expansion would have on the overall level of competition. If the added labor increases productivity differentials or are disproportionately populated on high achieving firms, then the likely result would be greater imbalance. We find that while increases in the foreign‐born component are associated with an increase in the overall level of competition, the impact has diminished across time. (JEL C22, D23, D30)     

U.S. immigration policy: the guestworker option revisited

In guestworker programs foreign nationals are admitted into another country on a nonmigrant status with severely curtailed social and limited labor market rights. The duration of stay is always finite and compliance with the terms of the contract are entered through a network of legal arrangements which allow officials in the receiving country a substantial amount of administrative discretion. Pro-guestworker arguments say that the borders cannot be closed, that guestworkers can be substituted for illegal aliens, that guestworkers are better than illegal aliens, and that additional labor benefits the US economy. Those against guestworker programs stress longterm socioeconomic issues rather than short-term economic advantages, saying that guestworker programs are no quick answer for illegal immigration, for domestic labor shortages, or for the US poor population. Guestworker programs, its opponents say, provide short-run economic benefits to a few employers and individuals at the expense of more widespread and longterm socioeconomic costs. They oppose: 1) the concept of admitting foreign workers with restricted rights, 2) the concentration of any negative labor market impacts on already disadvantaged domestic groups, 3) the proliferation of "jobs which Americans won't take," 4) many temporary guests ending up permanent residents, and 5) that exporting workers is as likely to impede as accelerate job-creating economic development in immigration countries. Most economists believe that diminishing marginal productivity produces downward-sloping short-run demand for labor schedules. The European experience with these programs has been different than those in the US since foreign workers in Europe were initially recruited in response to actual labor shortages and have always had legal status, but both Europe and the US have experienced large contingents of workers who remain in the countries and are at a pronounced power disadvantage regarding the society's institutions. Studies of guestworker programs have shown that worker flows eventually become impervious to the receiver's actual labor needs as employers disaggregate jobs into components which match the low skills of migrants and create additional foreign worker jobs which are then shunned by native labor, thus perpetuating a need for such labor. If the US opts for a large-scale guestworker program this will only replace 1 set of problems with another and it is not at all certain that large-scale guestworker admissions will proportionately reduce illegal migration inflows.