International Dimensions of Post-1980 Internal Migration in the United States: The Role of Sustenance Specialization and Dominance

Post-1980 internal migration patterns were unanticipated, and prevailing explanations of them fail to account for the effects of new international relationships. A human ecological theory is developed which suggests an explanation based on the sphere of sustenance activities in ecosystems and relative dominance in these activities. Larger net migration was expected for counties specialized in activities that operate in international ecosystems in which the United States is dominant and less in other types of counties. The results for post-1980 migration in United States counties support these expectations and the utility of an expanded human ecological perspective.     

Changing Income Inequality in Nonmetropolitan Counties, 1980 to 1990*

Abstract Income inequality has been increasing across the United States, but little is known about changing income inequality in nonmetropolitan counties. Data from the 1980 and 1990 Summary Tape Files of the U.S. Census of Population and Housing are used to estimate ordinary least squares models of change in income inequality. Household income inequality increased in a smaller share of nonmetro than metro counties from 1980 to 1990, and increases in income inequality were influenced more strongly by economic restructuring in nonmetro than in metro counties. Other factors, such as change in household structure, demographic composition, and labor supply and job quality, were generally similar in affecting income inequality in nonmetro and metro counties. The greater importance of economic restructuring in nonmetro counties indicates the lesser diversity and smaller size of local economies, and their greater vulnerability to forces of economic restructuring.     

Wealth in Middle and Old Age in Mexico: The Role of International Migration1

This article examines the impact that past migration to the U.S. has on the current economic well‐being of individuals in middle or old age who have returned to Mexico. A priori, the net effect of U.S. migration on wealth among return migrants is difficult to predict; there are counteracting factors that can affect wealth positively or negatively. Using data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study 2001 and correcting for selection factors, the long‐term effect of U.S. migration for return migrants was found consistently positive in terms of their accumulated personal wealth at middle and old age. This article speculates about the possible mechanisms that can explain this apparent advantage.     

On the Determinants of International Migration in the Philippines: An Empirical Analysis1

This article explores the roles of population, average earnings and employment rates in the sending and host countries on international migration. Using a model designed by Schultz (1982) for rural‐urban migration, it also tests the validity of two hypotheses, namely, 1) the Harris‐Todaro expected earnings hypothesis and 2) the symmetry hypothesis of effects of sending and host area variables on migration. The empirical analysis examines international migration from the Philippines to 26 non‐Middle Eastern countries in the period 1981–1995. It uses fixed effects panel data regression method to determine the impact of the economic variables in the sending and host countries. Finally, it looks into the influence of economic transformations in the Philippines and the host countries, as well as the relaxation of migration policies by the host countries on the actual migration of Filipinos in the period 1987–1995.     

International Migration and the Role of Remittances in Eastern Europe

In this paper we analyse the effect of remittances on employment performance for Central and East European (CEE) economies. We show that the impact of remittances on unemployment depends on its effect on productivity growth and investment. In order to empirically analyse the impact of remittances we estimate a productivity equation using a set of 11 transition countries during the 1990 to 1999 period. Our results show support for the view that remittances have a positive impact on productivity and employment both directly and indirectly through its effect on investment.     

Determinants of International Migration Flows to and from Industrialized Countries: A Panel Data Approach Beyond Gravity1

We quantified determinants of international migratory inflows to 17 Western countries and outflows from 13 of these countries between 1950 and 2007 in 77,658 observations from multiple sources using panel-data analysis techniques. To construct a quantitative model that could be useful for demographic projection, we analyzed the logarithm of the number of migrants (inflows and outflows separately) as dependent variables in relation to demographic, geographic, and social independent variables. The independent variables most influential on log inflows were demographic [log population of origin and destination and log infant mortality rate (IMR) of origin and destination] and geographic (log distance between capitals and log land area of the destination). Social and historical determinants were less influential. For log outflows from the 13 countries, the most influential independent variables were log population of origin and destination, log IMR of destination, and log distance between capitals. A young age structure in the destination was associated with lower inflows while a young age structure in the origin was associated with higher inflows. Urbanization in destination and origin increased international migration. IMR affected inflows and outflows significantly but oppositely. Being landlocked, having a common border, having the same official language, sharing a minority language, and colonial links also had statistically significant but quantitatively smaller effects on international migration. Comparisons of models with different assumed correlation structures of residuals indicated that independence was the best assumption, supporting the use of ordinary-least-squares estimation techniques to obtain point estimates of coefficients.     

The Role of Migration Policy Changes in Europe for Return Migration to Senegal

This study questions the role of migration policy changes in France, Italy, and Spain for return migration to Senegal, by analyzing biographic data from the Migration between Africa and Europe (MAFE‐Senegal) survey and the contextual data of the Determinants of International Migration (DEMIG) VISA and DEMIG POLICY databases that cover major changes in migration policies in these destination countries for the different categories of migrants. Event history logistic regressions reveal that Senegalese migrants are less likely to return when the entry restrictions have become tighter. This result suggests that the decision to return depends on the possibility of migrating again after the return, which is crucial for both theory and policy regarding Western democracies' attempts to regulate migration.     

Wealth: Determinants of Savings Net Worth and Housing Net Worth of Pre-Retired Households

The objectives of this study are to determine effects of household members' characteristics, financial resources, and attitude toward intergenerational support on change in savings net worth and change in housing net worth. Subsamples of White respondents, Black respondents, and Hispanic respondents were analyzed to identify the effects of race or ethnicity on the dependent variables. Attitude toward intergenerational support was the intervening variable. Change in labor income had a positive impact on change in savings net worth for all three racial or ethnic groups. An additional child in a household and an older age of the household head were likely to decrease the change in savings net worth. Effects of the remaining variables differed by subsample. The effects of labor and nonlabor income were different for the change in savings net worth but not for the change in housing net worth. Some different effects for variables across the three racial or ethnic groups were noted.     

Managing Migration: The Role of Economic Instruments

This paper reviews economic policies and instruments available to the developed countries to reduce unwanted migration from developing countries, not all of which is irregular migration. Countries generally welcome legal immigrants and visitors, try to make it unnecessary for people to become refugees and asylum seekers, and try to discourage, detect, and remove irregular foreigners. There are three major themes: 1. There are as many reasons for migration as there are migrants, and the distinction between migrants motivated by economic and non–economic considerations is often blurred. Perhaps the best analogy is to a river – what begins as one channel that can be managed with a dam can become a series of rivulets forming a delta, making migration far more difficult to manage. 2. The keys to reducing unwanted migration lie mostly in emigration countries, but trade and investment fostered by immigration countries can accelerate economic and job growth in both emigration and immigration countries, and make trading in goods a substitute for economically motivated migration. Trade and economic integration had the effect of slowing emigration from Europe to the Americas, between southern Europe and northern Europe, and in Asian Tiger countries such as South Korea and Malaysia. However, the process of moving toward freer trade and economic integration can also increase migration in the short term, producing a migration hump, and requiring cooperation between emigration and immigration destinations so that the threat of more migration does not slow economic integration and growth. 3. Aid, intervention, and remittances can help reduce unwanted migration, but experience shows that there are no assurances that such aid, intervention, and remittances would, in fact, lead migrants to stay at home. The better use of remittances to promote development, which at US$65 billion in 1999 exceeded the US$56 billion in official development assistance (ODA), is a promising area for cooperation between migrants and their areas of origin, as well as emigration and immigration countries. There are two ways that differences between countries can be narrowed: migration alone in a world without free trade, or migration and trade in an open economy. Migration will eventually diminish in both cases, but there is an important difference between reducing migration pressures in a closed or open world economy. In a closed economy, economic differences can narrow as wages fall in the immigration country, a sure recipe for an anti–immigrant backlash. By contrast, in an open economy, economic differences can be narrowed as wages rise faster in the emigration country. Areas for additional research and exploration of policy options include: (1) how to phase in freer trade, investment, and economic integration to minimize unwanted migration; (2) strategies to increase the job–creating impacts of remittances, perhaps by using aid to match remittances that are invested in job–creating ways.     

Retirement Migration and the Use of Services in Nonmetropolitan Counties1

A conceptual framework of need, enabling, and predisposing determinants of services utilization is employed in an analysis of the use of public services among recent inmigrants (N = 306) and longer-term residents (N = 323) age 60 and older in retirement-destination counties of the Middle-Atlantic region of the United States. Logistic regression is used to examine whether migration status affects use of an array of public services or whether migration transmits the effects of other selectivity factors such as age, gender, income, and health status as indicators of need, enabling, and predisposing characteristics. Being an inmigrant predisposes use of recreation-oriented public services regardless of selectivity, but other characteristics of older individuals rather than migration per se predict use of other public services.     

The Determinants of Student Migration to Poland Based on the Opolskie Voivodeship Study

Until recently Poland has been considered a country to emigrate from. However, the situation is now beginning to change, and Poland is becoming an immigration country. This also refers to student migration. Polish universities are becoming increasingly attractive to foreign students, who are mainly of Ukrainian origin. They only began to promote their services abroad in 2005 and their foreign student population growth dynamic is one of the highest in the world. The study was conducted in the Opolskie Voivodeship, the first region in Poland where systematic action was taken to address depopulation, and the steps to counteract population decline were included in its strategic policies. One of the objectives of such policies was to stimulate immigration. For this reason, it was decided that the Opolskie Voivodeship might serve as a lab to study migration processes, including the inflow of foreign students.     

The International Migration of Nurses in Long-Term Care

This article describes five major factors that are affecting patterns of international migration among nurses who work in long-term care settings:

• Demographic drivers–The aging of the populations in developed countries and the low to negative growth in the working-age population will increase the demand for international workers to provide long-term care services.

• Gender and race–A dual labor market of long-term care workers, increasingly made up of women of color, is becoming internationalized by the employment of migrating nurses from developing countries.

• Credentialing–The process of credentialing skilled workers creates barriers to entry for migrating nurses and leads to “decredentialing” where registered nurses work as licensed practical nurses or aides.

• Colonial history and geography–The colonial histories of many European countries and the United States have increased migration from former colonies in developing countries to former colonial powers.

• Worker recruitment–Efforts to limit the recruitment of health care workers from some developing countries have had little effect on migration, in part because much of the recruitment comes through informal channels of family and friends.

     

Patterns and economic effects of drug overdose mortality in Texas: 1980-1986

Drug overdose mortality and its economic consequences are explored for ten different drug categories in this article. Data on drug overdose mortality in Texas for the years 1980-1986 are examined and a cost of mortality analysis is presented using the human capital methodology. In addition, mortality rates per 100,000 population are presented for each drug category. The results indicate that the cost of drug overdose mortality has more than doubled over the six-year period. The greatest growth in mortality cost has been for narcotics and cocaine, with commonly prescribed psychoactive drugs remaining fairly constant. The results suggest that men are at far greater risk of drug overdose than women with respect to illicit drugs. Women, however, appear to be at greater risk for overdose from commonly prescribed drugs.     

The Education‐Migration Industry: International Students,Migration Policy and the Question of Skills

This special section specifically focuses on student‐migrants and the way they are being catered to by an emerging education‐migration industry. The articles included build upon the observation that especially within the Asia‐Pacific region there is an increasing conflation and entanglement between categories of international students and skilled migrants. This has led to an emerging “industry” that facilitates study‐abroad trajectories and acts as broker for two‐step migration pathways. This Introduction aims to situate the research presented here within the broader context of a burgeoning field of research which examines the growing popularity of international education across the Asia‐Pacific region; the way its emergence is increasingly entangled with specific ambitions that skilled migration programmes cater to; and the way highly regulated skilled migration programmes have given rise to a migration industry in general.     

War in Iraq: Environment of Insecurity and International Migration

LA GUERRE EN IRAK : CONTEXTE D'INSÉCURITÉ ET MIGRATION INTERNATIONALE
Cet article porte sur les éventuels rapports entre conflit et migration internationale, tout particulièrement dans le contexte de la plus récente guerre en Irak. Les tendances de la migration internationale irakienne sont analysées afin d'établir une éventuelle influence de la guerre sur la migration. Les situations de conflit sont répandues en Irak depuis plus de deux décennies, les racines de ces conflits remontant à 1979, année où Saddam Hussein est devenu le président de ce pays. Pendant le dernier quart de siècle, l'histoire irakienne a été marquée par des guerres et des crises d'aprèsguerre qui ont déclenché des tensions entre ethnies. D'après nous, ce sont ces tensions ethniques qui ont contribuéà la migration internationale à partir de l'Irak. C'est l'instabilité générale associée aux conflits qui engendre souvent des tensions plus vives entre différents groupes ethniques, à savoir les Kurdes, les Turkmènes, les chiites et les sunnites. Les situations de conflit ethnique peuvent mener à un contexte général d'insécurité, lequel sera une « occasion >> pour les personnes qui ont déjà des « projets >> individuels de migration. Les pays d'Europe occidentale seront particulièrement concernés par ces mouvement migratoires potentiels. Pendant les périodes de conflit, les Irakiens ont établi des réseaux de migration et formé en Occident des communautés d'immigrants assez vastes. Ces réseaux serviront également de facteurs facilitants pour la migration ethnique potentielle de certains Irakiens.     

Migration as a Family Business: The Role of Personal Networks in the Mobility Phase of Migration

Formulée pour la première fois par John Salt et Jeremy Stein dans International Migration en 1997, la conception de la migration en tant qu'activité commerciale a transformé la perception de ce phénomène aussi bien auprès des spécialistes que des médias grand public. Cependant, bien que ce modèle propose un nouvel outil utile pour étudier les déplacements des individus dans le monde, sa popularité en tant que métaphore a eu pour conséquence d'occulter d'autres aspects du sujet qu'il n'arrivait pas à intégrer. Comme l'auteur cherche à le démontrer par l'analyse d'entretiens avec des migrants du Maroc et du Sénégal en Espagne et d'Egypte et du Ghana en Italie ainsi que par les profils de divers migrants aux Pays-Bas, la métaphore de l'activité commerciale n'apporte qu'une réponse partielle. Elle ne permet pas d'expliquer l'importance primordiale que revêtent pour la plupart des migrants les réseaux d'amis, de parents et de connaissances au moment d'entreprendre leur voyage.