EU Integration & Emigration Consequences: The Case of Lithuania

This paper analyses the causes, consequences, and policy implications of Lithuanian emigration following the country’s European Union (EU) accession in May 2004. After placing Lithuanian emigration in its historical context, the study assesses the recent dynamics, including the driving forces and characteristics of Lithuanian emigration at both the international and domestic level. The study finds that the primary determinants of this movement are both demand‐ and supply‐side factors. On the demand side, the labour shortages, decline in the working age population, and desire for cheaper labour in Western European countries function to attract Lithuanian labour. Concurrently, lower wages, higher unemployment, and the generally less developed economic conditions in Lithuania are encouraging Lithuanians to take advantage of the greater mobility that came with EU accession. The expanding networks linking migrants and potential migrants are facilitating this out‐migration, as well as the social mind‐set by which emigration is a perceived solution to socio‐economic difficulties. This study concludes that the consequences of this new emigration reality are mixed. The free movement of workers has helped to relieve pressure on the domestic labour market, drive down unemployment, place upward pressure on wages, and increase the remittances rate to Lithuania. However, concern is not ill‐founded; recent emigration has introduced labour market shortages, placed greater demographic pressure on the country, and increased the likelihood of brain drain. This study argues, therefore, that while Lithuanian emigration cannot and should not be stopped, Lithuania does have policy alternatives as a sending‐country that will help to mitigate the costs of emigration and maximize the benefits for the country’s long‐term development.     

Labour Market Realism and the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees

The Global Compacts on Migration (GCM) and Refugees (GCR) include policy recommendations that aim to increase opportunities for legal labour migration, improve protections for migrant workers, and provide refugees with ‘complementary pathways’ to enhanced protection via labour mobility. This paper explains why there are large gaps between these policy recommendations and the labour market policies and realities in the countries that host most of the world’s migrant workers. These gaps between ideals and realities are likely to limit the effective implementation of the GCM/GCR recommendations on labour migration. More ‘labour market realism‘ is needed to incrementally but effectively improve protections for migrant workers.     

Shifting Paradigms of Globalization: The Twenty-first Century Transition Towards Generics in Skilled Migration from India

Globalization of human capital through international migration is no longer about global physical presence only; it is also about global applicability of skills across various fields of specialization. This marks the main characteristics of skilled migration from India to developed countries in the twenty-first century. The focus is shifting away from professionals in specific occupations, like doctors, engineers, scientists, architects, bankers, to information technology (IT) professionals embodying, in a way, more generic skills.
In other words, it is the generic applicability of information and communications technology (ICT) which has led to large-scale migration of Indians skilled in IT.
Moreover, the exodus comprises not only the fully trained and educated workers going abroad for employment, but also students - the semi-finished human capital - pursuing higher education in onshore as well as offshore universities of the developed countries.
The new emigration is directed towards traditional host countries in the West such as the UK, Canada, and the US, but also towards newly emerging destinations in continental Europe (Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Denmark), Australasia (Australia, New Zealand), East Asia (Japan, Republic of Korea), and South-East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia).
By using mainly current information and informal data as reported in the media, this article perceives emerging trends and changes in the context of the global labour market for skills, and suggests a possible framework towards evolving strategies of remedial development.     

Emigration from China: A Sending Country Perspective

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the policies pursued by the People's Republic of China (PRC) regarding the emigration of Chinese nationals. Most of the available literature on migration management has focused on receiving countries. With a few exceptions, little attention has been directed at migration management policies pursued in countries of origin. In the case of the PRC, policies regarding overseas Chinese have been fairly well documented and researched, but very little has been written about how the Chinese authorities manage ongoing emigration flows. This gap becomes particularly salient as the importance of the “partnership with the countries of origin” in devising migration policies is being increasingly acknowledged by receiving countries in Europe (Commission of the European Communities, 2000). Over the last 20 years, there have been significant changes in the Chinese Government's policies and perspectives on emigration. But, just like most other governments, the Chinese authorities do not have a single blanket policy covering all categories of emigrants. Emigration is normally managed on a case‐by‐case basis and the Government's attitude toward the same type of emigration may vary depending on different cases and circumstances. Because of this, this article examines China's major emigration‐related policy spheres one by one. Specifically, six issues will be discussed: (1) exit control; (2) diaspora policy; (3) student migration; (4) labour export; (5) regulations on emigration agencies and, finally (6) the Government's response to human smuggling. This article shows both the coherence and the fragmentation in China's policies toward emigration. The coherence is due to the fact that all the policies are inherently linked to China's overall economic and social development strategy. The emigration management regime is sometimes fragmented partly because emigration consists of different streams and is handled by different Government departments, partly because some emigration issues (such as regulations on emigration agents) are very new for the Chinese Government and the authorities are still exploring them. Overall, the Chinese authorities increasingly see emigration as a means to enhance China's integration to the world and are keen to avoid conflicts with the international community over migration issues. At the same time, China's emigration policies need to be more balanced, in particular, the emigration of unskilled labour should be given more priority.     

Emigration and development: the case of a Bangladeshi village

This article examines the developmental consequences of international labour migration in a Bangladeshi village. The data are from Hoglakandi, a village 30 kilometres south-east of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire with both open-ended and closed category questions was used among 50 Singapore returnees, supplemented with additional in-depth interviews. International labour migration has often been seen by many sending countries as a short cut to development because of its role in unemployment relief, balance of payments relief, and capital formation at national level. The study argues that the causes and effects of emigration can better be understood only when the process is placed within its local context, since what may prove to be advantageous at the national level may prove to be detrimental to a household or community or vice-versa. It demonstrates how the contribution of labour migration is merely the transformation of labour into a structural component of the international political economy. The Hoglakandi experience reveals that labour migration does not fuel the local economy from an external pipeline of remittances and skill acquisition, rather it drains local resources that retard the development.     

International migration and New Zealand labour markets

"This paper seeks to assess the value of the overseas-born members of the labour force in ensuring a flexible labour supply in New Zealand since the beginning of the 1970s. Three main issues are considered: first, the role of the labour market in New Zealand's immigration policy; second, international migration trends and the labour market; and third, the evidence on migration and labour market segmentation in New Zealand." Data used are from official external migration statistics, quinquennial censuses, and recent research. The author notes that "in New Zealand immigration measures are currently being taken that emphasize that immigration continues to add to the flexibility of the labour market while uncontrolled emigration is a major cause of labour market instability." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

International trade,labour migrations and capital flows: long-term evidence for Australia,Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States

The historical links between international factor mobility and the extent of international trade are analysed over the long term for three high labour immigration countries (Australia, Canada and the United States) and one high labour emigration country (the United Kingdom).
Time series data are used. Current international openness is assessed relative to this experience. International factor market integration has increased over time with trade liberalization, suggesting that traditional Hecksher-Ohlin thinking cannot be readily used to account for long-term trends in several important economies.
Both trade and factor mobility have an episodic character that makes it misleading to assess current international openness only in terms of post-World War 2 economic trends.     

Arbeitsmarktsegregation und Einkommen

What mechanisms link horizontal labour market segregation and the gender gap in wages? One explanation is based on the cultural devaluation of typically ‘female’ skills and work contents which are held responsible for lower earnings in these occupations. In the present study the idea of devaluation of ‘female’ work is contrasted with other possible explanations such as occupational differences in specialized human capital requirements or unpleasant work conditions. Based on a large sample of employed persons in Germany (IAB-Beschaeftigtenstichprobe 1975–1995) and on a survey on work conditions (BIBB/IAB-Erhebung 1991/92), the influence of ‘female’ work contents and other occupational variables on individual earnings is modeled for East and West Germany separately. The results of multilevel analyses accounting for the embeddedness of individuals in occupations and industries show that some ‘female’ work contents — typing, cleaning and selling — decrease income, and thus are culturally devalued. In contrast, occupational differences in specialized human capital requirements and work conditions do seemingly not affect individual wages. In East Germany the results in regard of devaluation are less pronounced. In both parts of the country there is an unabatedly strong effect of individual sex on earnings which cannot be explained by the introduced occupational characteristics.     

Labour Market and Human Capital Behaviour of Immigrant Couples: Evidence from Australia

We examine the labour market and human capital investment behaviour of immigrant couples in Australia. The family investment hypothesis (FIH) states that immigrant husbands, whom the FIH assumes to be the primary earners in the family, will invest more in their human capital than immigrant wives, whom the FIH assumes to be secondary earners. Using longitudinal data from Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) for the period 2001 to 2014, we do not find support for the FIH. Instead, we find that foreign-born husbands and wives share similar labour market assimilation patterns with respect to hours of work and wages. Our estimates suggest that immigrant wives' labour market behaviour can be better explained by their own long-term career progression and labour market assimilation, than through supporting their husbands' labour market assimilation.     

New governance of labour rights: the perspective of Cambodian garment workers’ struggles

Globalization has implied the transfer of industrial work to countries of the Global South, where labour rights are seldom effectively protected by legal frameworks. New forms of governance that go beyond state-centred legal regulation are presented as an alternative to fill in ‘governance gaps’. This paper analyses ‘new governance’ from the perspective of Cambodian garment workers and labour movements’ struggles. Drawing on the literature on governance and private regulation and research data from Cambodia, it argues that a technocratic approach makes governance initiatives ignore the economic conflict between labour and capital but also the possible political conflict between labour and government. By ignoring trade union rights, power-blind initiatives might end up weakening both the labour movement and democratic accountability, instead of complementing state’s regulatory roles. This might serve the overlapping interests of the powerful actors both in Cambodia and internationally.     

Diaspora strategies,skilled migrants and human capital enhancement in Jamaica

In an attempt to boost its stock of human capital and access to global flows of investment, knowledge and innovation, the Jamaican state has begun to turn to skilled members of its diaspora as a vital and untapped economic resource. State strategies to accumulate human capital within the diaspora, however, raise questions about the culture of labour markets and their effects on human capital enhancement and the transfer of knowledge. Drawing on the labour market experiences of skilled members of the Jamaican diaspora currently living on the island, I explore the possibilities and limits that skilled diaspora network strategies offer for capturing, transforming and embedding knowledge, innovation and investment capital in Jamaica.     

Inequalities in social capital and their longitudinal effects on the labour market entry

This study investigates socio-economic and ethnic inequalities in social capital and their effects on the process of the labour market entry. We use longitudinal data about the transition from school to work of lower- and middle educated young people in Belgium. Social capital is measured with three robust position generator measures. In line with previous studies, there are substantial socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in the access to social capital. Ethnic differences in social capital are, however, due to the socio-economic deprivation of ethnic minority groups in Belgium. Among the specific population of lower- and middle educated youth, knowing more people from the working class leads to a higher likelihood of entering the labour market versus continuing in education, whereas knowing more people from the higher service class results in a lower likelihood of entering the labour market. Especially the resources of strong ties such as relatives and friends are important for these decisions. In addition, once entered the labour market, social capital has an impact on the likelihood of getting a job. Lower- and middle educated labour market entrants who know more people from the working class are more likely to find work, whereas knowing people from the lower service class decreases the job chances. However, there is no evidence for social capital effects on the occupational status of the job among our population.     

Berufliche Qualifizierung für Arbeitslose

The efficiency of publicly financed training measures is discussed. Findings concerning evaluation have for the most part diverged as a result of data problems. The article examines the efficiency of publicly financed training programs for East Germany which aim at reintegrating unemployed persons. The analysis is based on longitudinal data of the ?Berufsverlaufsstudie Ostdeutschland“ (occupational trajectories in East Germany) for the period 1990–1997. Analytically, the effect of training measures is split into a ?human capital“ and an ?institutional“ effect. Both effects are analyzed in a multivariate event history model. They operate in contrary directions: the institutional effect is marked by delayed reintegration of unemployed into work whereas the human capital effect results in better labour market chances due to additional credentials. In times of rapidly changing labour market structures the institutional effect overrides the human capital effect. In the East German transformation process, publicly financed training measures have not proved to bean efficient political instrument to speed up the reintegration of the unemployed people into gainful employment.     

Unpacking “the system”: Multi-level governance gaps in the labour market integration of highly skilled refugees

A plethora of government- and non-government actors are involved in the labour market integration of highly skilled refugees, forming a complex “system” that is difficult to navigate for integration actors and refugees. Based on interviews with 32 labour market integration actors in Sweden, this article examines multi-level governance gaps in the wake of the simultaneous centralization and decentralization of labour market preparation services. It examines various “steps” in the labour market integration process to gain a more holistic perspective of “the system”, and identifies governance gaps in each step. The article finds that the devolution of services has opened up participatory spaces for non-government actors, but narrowly defined mandates and short-term funding mechanisms hamper cooperation within and between territorial levels of policy implementation.     

Family Migration as a Class Matter

Traditionally, family migration was conceptualized as a separate form of migration from labour migration. Increasingly socio‐economic criteria (labour market participation, language competence, financial resources, independence from welfare), have been applied to family migration policies in Europe, and are harder to fulfil by those with a weaker labour market position. Hence class now plays an increasingly significant role in stratifying the right to family migration. The article examines the imposition of minimum income requirements in three countries – the Netherlands, Norway and the UK – and the significance of class in its economic and cultural dimensions in meeting the requirement. For those without sufficient economic capital to meet the requirement, cultural capital may facilitate the development of coping strategies to overcome or reduce the duration of family separation. Class is not the only stratifying element: gender, age and ethnicity interact with and reinforce the effects of class.     

Emigration for Development? An Exploration of the State's Role in the Development‐Migration Nexus: The Case of Romania

This article explores the proposition that the developmental potential of emigration depends on the context of the sending countries. It builds on the insights from the institutional approach to development and adapts them to the migration‐development nexus. It argues that government involvement is necessary if resources from emigration are to become seeds for development. By analysing the case of Romania, one of the largest labour sending countries in Eastern Europe, it argues that its laissez‐faire approach is likely not enough to capitalize on emigrants' resources for development.     

Financial Literacy,Human Capital and Stock Market Participation in Europe

Households’ stock market participation has significant effects on savings and on an economy’s financial development and performance. Yet participation into capital markets is limited and quite heterogonous both among and within several countries. This phenomenon represents an empirical puzzle whose understanding is rather incomplete. In this work, we exploited a combination of datasets for nine European countries and used different econometric specifications that allow to control for endogeneity of financial literacy and human capital, to assess the role of several variables in affecting the probability to participate in the stock market in year 2010. Besides socio-demographic variables, we found that financial literacy has a positive and significant effect on stock market participation, together with the level of human capital and social interaction. Country level differences are explained by such institutional factors as the effectiveness of the education system and by the attractiveness of the stock markets.     

Scientific Brain Drain and Human Capital Formation After the End of the Soviet Union

This article provides new empirical evidence on the impact of emigration on human capital formation by drawing upon the exodus of Russian scientists after the end of the Soviet Union. I create a novel panel data set based on scientific publications to identify former Soviet scientist émigrés and official Russian statistics on the production of PhDs aggregated at the regional and scientific field levels. I show that the emigration of scientists in the post‐Soviet period is associated with lower production of PhDs measured by admissions, graduates, and the number of students. The results suggest that emigration is not increasing investment in human capital at the PhD level. Possible explanations are that there is a lack of mentors to train the next generation of PhD students and that émigrés are acting as a channel for the younger generation to pursue PhD studies abroad.     

The Macroeconomic Determinants of Remittance Flows from Russia to Tajikistan

Within the two decades of transition to market economy interdependence of the former Soviet Union countries is continuing. Labour migration between Russia and the former Soviet Union republics is one of the examples of this relationship. This paper defines the macroeconomic determinants of remittance flows from Russia to Tajikistan—the world’s top remittance-receiving country as a share of GDP. The paper demonstrates that the changes in the income available for the migrants and the possibility of migrants involvement in the labour market of the host country have a significant impact on their money transfers. Furthermore, remittance inflows are determined by the overall economic environment in the host and home countries as well as the global economy’s condition.     

Intangibles and the Gender Wage Gap: An Analysis of Gender Wage Gaps Across Occupations in the Finnish Private Sector

The paper compares the gender wage differentials of two occupation groups—innovation and non-innovation workers—separately for manufacturing and services using Finnish private-sector data. We apply a decomposition method based on unconditional quantile regression techniques to identify key factors underlying the gender wage gaps observed along the whole wage distribution, as well as changes in these wage gaps between 2002 and 2009. This more nuanced approach provides important new insights. We find conspicuous differences in average gender wage gaps, in gender wage-gap profiles across the wage distribution and also in the evolution of gender wage differentials over time between sectors and occupation groups. Our results imply that sector-specific factors are a more important driving force behind these differences in patterns and trends of gender wage gaps, although occupation-specific factors cannot be totally dismissed. Hence, comparisons of gender wage gaps, including their underlying sources, of innovation and non-innovation workers for too broadly defined segments of the labour market may result in misleading conclusions concerning the factual role of intangible capital.