The unexpected consequences of forced migration

Matti Sarvimäki looks at the long-term economic outcomes for Finns displaced by the 1939 Soviet invasion.

Assimilating Immigrants: The Impact of an Integration Program

Immigration policy design is an important and controversial topic in most developed countries. We inform this debate by evaluating the effects of an integration program for immigrants to Finland. The program consists of an individualized sequence of training and subsidized employment. Non-compliance is sanctioned by reductions in welfare benefits. Our empirical strategy exploits a discontinuity that made participation obligatory in May 1999 only for those who had entered the population register after May 1997. The results suggest that the program strongly increased the employment and earnings of immigrants and reduced their dependency on social benefits.Immigrants, assimilation, integration programs, regression-discontinuity

Long-Term Effects of Forced Migration

We study the long-term effects of human displacement using individual-level panel data on forced migrants and comparable non-migrants. After World War II, Finland ceded a tenth of its territory to the Soviet Union and resettled the entire population living in these areas in the remaining parts of the country. We find that displacement increased the long-term income of men, but had no effect on that of women. We attribute a large part of the effect to faster transition from traditional (rural) to modern (urban) occupations among the displaced.regional labor markets, displaced persons, migration

Utzon: La luz definidora de la Tercera Generación

In Space, Time, and Architecture, Sigfried Giedion identified Jørn Utzon as one of the proponents and leaders of what Giedion regarded as the Third Generation of modern architecture in the 20th century. This article considers how Utzon subsequently further exemplified in later works the principles Giedion had identified as essential to that Third Generation and discusses, as Giedion did not explicitly, the significance of light in Utzon’s architecture, which plays a key role in underpinning and articulating these defining principles. This article addresses how the principles Giedion attributed to Utzon and his defining consideration of light, derived from his interpretations of his many transcultural sources of inspiration, notably including from, China, Iran, Japan, Hawaii, Mexico, and Morocco, as well as from his own Nordic realm and Europe, as can be seen in the Sydney Opera House, Can Lis in Mallorca, Melli Bank in Tehran, Kuwait National Assembly, and Bagsværd Church in Denmark, among others.En Espacio, Tiempo y Arquitectura, Sigfried Giedion identificó a Jørn Utzon como uno de los impulsores y exponentes de lo que Giedion consideraba la Tercera Generación de la arquitectura moderna en el siglo XX. Con referencia precisa a Utzon, Giedion definió la esencia de esa Tercera Generación. Este artículo analiza cómo Utzon ejemplificó en sus obras los principios que Giedion había identificado como esenciales de esa Tercera Generación y trata, como Giedion no lo hizo de manera explícita, la importancia de la luz en la arquitectura de Utzon, que desempeña un papel fundamental para apuntalar y articular estos principios definitorios. Se estudian así las particularidades que Giedion atribuyó a Utzon y su consideración definitoria de la luz, derivadas de la interpretación de sus numerosas fuentes transculturales de inspiración, en particular, de China, Irán, Japón, Hawai, México y Marruecos, así como de Europa y su propio ámbito nórdico, como se puede ver en la Ópera de Sídney, Can Lis en Mallorca, Melli Bank en Teherán, la Asamblea Nacional de Kuwait, y la Iglesia Bagsværd en Dinamarca, entre otros

Managing Refugee Protection Crises: Policy Lessons from Economics and Political Science

We review and interpret research on the economic and political effects of receiving asylum seekers and refugees in developed countries, with a particular focus on the 2015 European refugee protection crisis and its aftermath. In the first part of the paper, we examine the consequences of receiving asylum seekers and refugees and identify two main findings. First, the reception of refugees is unlikely to generate large direct economic effects. Both labor market and fiscal consequences for host countries are likely to be relatively modest. Second, however, the broader political processes accompanying the reception and integration of refugees may give rise to indirect yet larger economic effects. Specifically, a growing body of work suggests that the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees can fuel the rise of anti-immigrant populist parties, which may lead to the adoption of economically and politically isolationist policies. Yet, these political effects are not inevitable and occur only under certain conditions. In the second part of the paper, we discuss the conditions under which these effects are less likely to occur. We argue that refugees’ effective integration along relevant linguistic, economic, and legal dimensions, an allocation of asylum seekers that is perceived as ‘fair’ by the host society, and meaningful contact between locals and newly arrived refugees have the potential to mitigate the political and indirect economic risks

Integroitumista vai eriytymistä? : Maahanmuuttajalapset ja -nuoret Suomessa

Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan maahanmuuttajataustaisten lasten ja nuorten integroitumista Suomeen. Integroitumisen onnistumisen mittareina käytämme koulutukseen, terveyteen ja rikollisuuteen liittyviä vasteita. Koulutuksellista integroitumista mitataan toisen asteen tutkinnon suorittamisella ja korkea-asteen koulutukseen hakeutumisella. Ensimmäinen terveyteen liittyvä vaste kuvaa vakavaan sairauteen määrättyjen lääkkeiden erityiskorvausoikeutta ja toinen mielenterveyslääkkeiden ostoja. Rikollisuuteen liittyvät vasteet kuvaavat alioikeuksissa annettuja rikostuomioita vakavimmista tuomioista sakkotuomioihin. Tutkimuksessamme ovat mukana vuosina 1975–1985 syntyneet maahanmuuttajien lapset. Ulkomailla syntyneet ovat tulleet Suomeen alle 15-vuotiaana. Nuorten integroitumista Suomeen seurataan 23-vuotiaaksi saakka. Tutkimus perustuu 20 prosentin väestöotokseen. Tuloksemme osoittavat, että väestötason suorissa keskiarvovertailuissa – ilman taustamuuttujien vakiointia – maahanmuuttajanuorten koulutuksellinen integroituminen vaihtelee hyvin paljon maahanmuuttajaryhmittäin. Heikointa integroituminen on ryhmässä muu eli muualta kuin OECD-maista tai lähialueilta (Venäjä, Viro, ent. Neuvostoliitto) tulleilla nuorilla. Kun vakioimme sosioekonomisen taustan, erot kantaväestöön häviävät OECD-maista tulleiden nuorten kohdalla toisen asteen tutkinnon suorittamisessa ja lähialueilta tulleet nuoret ovat suorittaneet tutkinnon jopa kantaväestöä useammin. Myös korkeakouluun hakeutuminen on yleisempää OECD-maista ja lähialueilta tulleilla nuorilla perhetaustan vakioinnin jälkeen. Ryhmässä muut erot kantaväestöön pienenevät koulutusvasteissa huomattavasti taustamuuttujien vakioinnin jälkeen, mutta erot säilyvät tilastollisesti merkitsevinä. Terveyteen liittyvät vasteet kertovat vähäisemmästä sairastavuudesta ja lääkkeiden käytöstä maahanmuuttajanuorten keskuudessa. Vakavien sairauksien diagnoosit ja mielenterveyslääkkeiden käyttö on maahanmuuttajilla vähäisempää kuin kantaväestöllä, ja tulos säilyy myös perhetaustan vakioimisen jälkeen. On mahdollista, että tämä viittaa maahanmuuttajien valikoitumiseen (ns. terve maahanmuuttaja -ilmiö). Toinen mahdollinen selitys on terveyspalveluihin hakeutumiseen ja saatavuuteen liittyvät ongelmat. Vakavaa rikollisuutta kuvataan ehdottomilla vankeustuomioilla, jotka ovat harvinaisia tapahtumia kaikissa väestöryhmissä. Sosioekonomisen taustan vakioinnin jälkeen OECD-maista tulleet nuoret ovat syyllistyneet ehdottomaan vankeuteen johtaviin rikoksiin kantaväestöä harvemmin ja ryhmä muu kantaväestöä useammin. Kolmen vakavimman tuomiotyypin yhdistelmässä eroja väestöryhmien välillä ei ole. Sakkotuomioissa ryhmän muu maahanmuuttajanuoria on tuomittu kantaväestöä useammin, mutta valtaosa erosta kantaväestöön häviää sosioekonomisen taustan vakioinnin jälkeen. Kaikissa tarkastelluissa vasteissa keskeisin tulos on sama: syntymävuoden, perheen sosioekonomisen aseman ja perherakenteen huomioiminen selittää joko kokonaan tai valtaosan erosta kantaväestön ja maahanmuuttajien välillä

Managing Refugee Protection Crises: Policy Lessons from Economics and Political Science

We review and interpret research on the economic and political effects of receiving asylum seekers and refugees in developed countries, with a particular focus on the 2015 European refugee protection crisis and its aftermath. In the first part of the paper, we examine the consequences of receiving asylum seekers and refugees and identify two main findings. First, the reception of refugees is unlikely to generate large direct economic effects. Both labor market and fiscal consequences for host countries are likely to be relatively modest. Second, however, the broader political processes accompanying the reception and integration of refugees may give rise to indirect yet larger economic effects. Specifically, a growing body of work suggests that the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees can fuel the rise of anti-immigrant populist parties, which may lead to the adoption of economically and politically isolationist policies. Yet, these political effects are not inevitable and occur only under certain conditions. In the second part of the paper, we discuss the conditions under which these effects are less likely to occur. We argue that refugees’ effective integration along relevant linguistic, economic, and legal dimensions, an allocation of asylum seekers that is perceived as ‘fair’ by the host society, and meaningful contact between locals and newly arrived refugees have the potential to mitigate the political and indirect economic risks

Agglomeration in the Periphery

i. This discussion paper is a completely revised version of SERCDP0047, published April 2010. This paper argues that agglomeration externalities are important even in the rural periphery. The analysis focuses on the forced relocation of more than a tenth of the Finnish population after World War II. Using the details of the resettlement policy to construct instrumental variables for wartime population growth rate, I find that an exogenous increase in municipality's population had a positive effect on later population growth, industrialization and real wages. These findings are consistent with the presence of agglomeration externalities and inconsistent with other popular explanations for the spatial distribution of economic activity

Managing Refugee Protection Crises: Policy Lessons from Economics and Political Science

We review and interpret research on the economic and political effects of receiving asylum seekers and refugees in developed countries, with a particular focus on the 2015 European refugee protection crisis and its aftermath. In the first part of the paper, we examine the consequences of receiving asylum seekers and refugees and identify two main findings. First, the reception of refugees is unlikely to generate large direct economic effects. Both labor market and fiscal consequences for host countries are likely to be relatively modest. Second, however, the broader political processes accompanying the reception and integration of refugees may give rise to indirect yet larger economic effects. Specifically, a growing body of work suggests that the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees can fuel the rise of anti-immigrant populist parties, which may lead to the adoption of economically and politically isolationist policies. Yet, these political effects are not inevitable and occur only under certain conditions. In the second part of the paper, we discuss the conditions under which these effects are less likely to occur. We argue that refugees’ effective integration along relevant linguistic, economic, and legal dimensions, an allocation of asylum seekers that is perceived as ‘fair’ by the host society, and meaningful contact between locals and newly arrived refugees have the potential to mitigate the political and indirect economic risks