The effect of foreign-born residents on migratory patterns of natives in Spain

This paper examines the effect of internal migration of foreign-born residents on migratory patterns of natives in Spain during 2003-2005. The results obtained through a synthetic index of inter-regional mobility and the comparison of relative redundancies for their migration flows show that the foreign-born population's influence is negligible.

EXPLORING SPATIAL CONTAGION IN SPAIN’S INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION DISTRIBUTION

This paper explores the Spain’s international migration distribution (SIMD) for the 1998-2009 period. Beyond a general depiction of the distribution, the study pays special attention to the role played by space and, particularly, to the possibility of geographical contagion effects. For this latter, and using a spatial Markov chain approach, two new measures of positive and negative contagion are proposed. The results do identify space as key determinant of the SIMD. Furthermore, results reveal that there are contagion effects, positive contagion among provinces surrounded by high-immigration provinces being the most significant.

Regional international migration distribution in Spain: which factors are behind?

International migration issues are at the forefront of the political debate in the European Union (EU). Some reasons justify the increasing relevance of this topic, being the unprecedented scale of international migration flows, especially in countries such as Spain, the most prominent. In fact, adequate responses to the necessity for controlling effectively large flows of irregular immigration, and also safeguarding the internal security, are insistently demanded and always placed in the center of the political debate. Thus, recent studies portraying immigration experiences in the EU have been prolific in the literature on international migration. Some of these were applied to Spain as a representative country of changes in international migration patterns. However, and although some contributions to the analysis of international migration in Spain have been made, an examination of the international migration distribution (IMD) is still a pending question that needs further analysis. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to analyse some relevant aspects on IMD in Spain at regional level. After a descriptive analysis showing the importance that international migration plays in today’s Spanish demography and economy, the paper examines the IMD’s external shape and its intra-distribution mobility. Subsequently, an analysis of the factors that might be behind the IMD and its dynamics is carried out. The results will give information about the role played by factors such as geographical location, per capita income, industry mix, employment density and social networks in explaining this issue. Keywords: international migration; Spanish regions; distribution dynamics; highest density regions

Fracking, wars and stock market crashes. The price of oil during the great recession.

This study analyses how oil prices have been affected by three types of events that took place during the Great Recession: the development of fracking, wars in Libya, Syria and Ukraine and the stock market crash of 2008. To do this, we employ co-integration analysis, using a vector error correction model (VECM) for a period spanning August 2007 to August 2016. The principal results obtained are: firstly, that including a variable to represent the increase in production associated to fracking in the US improves the model’s long term estimation, as it embraces a new variable co-integrated in the long term; secondly, that the wars in Libya and Ukraine only influenced prices indirectly, insofar as the former sparked a reduction in OPEC production and the latter an increase in OECD oil reserves, both short term; and thirdly, that the stock market crash of 2008 led to a short- term reduction in oil prices

Higgs portal dark matter and neutrino mass and mixing with a doubly charged scalar

We consider an extension of the Standard Model involving two new scalar particles around the TeV scale: a singlet neutral scalar $\phi$, to be eventually identified as the Dark Matter candidate, plus a doubly charged $SU(2)_L$ singlet scalar, $S^{++}$, that can be the source for the non-vanishing neutrino masses and mixings. Assuming an unbroken $Z_2$ symmetry in the scalar sector, under which only the additional neutral scalar $\phi$ is odd, we write the most general (renormalizable) scalar potential. The model may be regarded as a possible extension of the conventional Higgs portal Dark Matter scenario which also accounts for neutrino mass and mixing. This framework cannot completely explain the observed positron excess. However a softening of the discrepancy observed in conventional Higgs portal framework can be obtained, especially when the scale of new physics responsible for generating neutrino masses and lepton number violating processes is around 2 TeV.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Short term interests, long term perspectives : balancing South Africa’s peace and security approach in the EU-SA Strategic Partnership

Abstract: South Africa’s peace and security outlook in the EU-SA Strategic Partnership has been guided by the content and substance of the founding document, which incorporates an interdependent approach to development. For South Africa, engagement in the EU-SA Strategic Partnership is framed by its historical background, its identity and the content of its foreign policy. South Africa’s foreign policy in particular adopts an integrated approach to securing the state within its surrounding regional and continental geography. This article reviews South Africa’s approach to peace and security, in the context of the strategic partnership. The article argues that, overall, South Africa’s definition of peace and security is compatible with that of the EU, however, Pretoria’s vision of how it provides peace and security has naturally changed in line with the varying international circumstances in which it has found itself. While this has proved difficult at times to reconcile peace and security collaboration in the strategic partnership has managed to remain intact