Migration and Education

Sjaastad (1962) viewed migration in the same way as education: as an investment in the human agent. Migration and education are decisions that are indeed intertwined in many dimensions. Education and skill acquisition play an important role at many stages of an individual's migration. Differential returns to skills in origin- and destination country are a main driver of migration. The economic success of the immigrant in the destination country is to a large extent determined by her educational background, how transferable these skills are to the host country labour market, and how much she invests into further skills after arrival. The desire to acquire skills in the host country that have a high return in the country of origin may also be an important reason for a migration. From an intertemporal point of view, the possibility of a later migration may also affect educational decisions in the home country long before a migration is realised. In addition, the decisions of migrants regarding their own educational investment, and their expectations about future migration plans may also affect the educational attainment of their children. But migration and education are not only related for those who migrate or their descendants. Migrations of some individuals may have consequences for educational decisions of those who do not migrate, both in the home and in the host country. By easing credit constraints through remittances, migration of some may help others to go to school. By changing the skill base of the receiving country, migration may change incentives to invest in certain types of human capital. Migrants and their children may create externalities that influence educational outcomes of non-migrants in the destination country. This chapter will discuss some of the key areas that connect migration and education.Migration, Education, Human Capital, Return Migration, Immigrant Selection, Second-generation

The Effect of Expected Income on Individual Migration Decisions

The paper develops a tractable econometric model of optimal migration, focusing on expected income as the main economic influence on migration. The model improves on previous work in two respects: it covers optimal sequences of location decisions (rather than a single once-for-all choice), and it allows for many alternative location choices. The model is estimated using panel data from the NLSY on white males with a high school education. Our main conclusion is that interstate migration decisions are influenced to a substantial extent by income prospects. The results suggest that the link between income and migration decisions is driven both by geographic differences in mean wages and by a tendency to move in search of a better locational match when the income realization in the current location is unfavorable.

Labour Market Outcomes and Skill Acquisition in the Host Country: North African Migrants Returning Home from the European Union

This paper studies the educational investment decisions of returning migrants while abroad in the context of their decisions about the choice of activity upon returning and the duration of migration. The theoretical model builds on Dustmann (1999), Dustmann and Kirchkamp (1992) and Mesnard (2004). Using data from the MIREM database we explore whether the type of skills acquired by migrants while abroad is related to the activity chosen upon return and the duration of migration. The results suggest that the type of education plays a significant role in the migration decisions of those returning as wage earners or self-employed. In particular, there is a clear positive relationship between being self-employed and having previously invested in vocational education in the host country. There is also a strong positive relationship between investing in university education abroad and becoming a wage earner. As international migration facilitates skill transfers between developed and developing countries, the economic development of the latter will increasingly depend on migrants' ability to access educational and vocational training in the developed world aside from university education. Returning migrants with vocational and professional training tend to be self-employed after returning home, and by so doing they contribute to reducing poverty in the host country.education, human capital, return migration, duration of migration

Education, unemployment and migration

This paper studies a two-region model in which unemployment, education decisions andinterregional migration are endogenous. The poorer region exhibits both lower wagesand higher unemployment rates, and migrants to the richer region are disproportionallyskilled. The brain drain from the poor to the rich region is accompanied by strongerincentives to acquire skills even for immobile workers. Regional shocks tend to affectboth regions in a symmetric fashion, and skilled-biased technological change reduceswages of the unskilled. Both education and migration decisions are distorted by auniform unemployment compensation, which justifies a corrective subsidization.Brain drain, brain gain, education, unemployment, interregional migration, externalities.

A review of migration and fertility theory through the lens of African immigrant fertility in France

This paper evaluates fertility and migration theory in order to further understand the impact of migration on fertility. I first analyze the fertility and migration literature separately and then look at the burgeoning literature on the impact of migration on fertility. As a result, I propose an integrated framework for analyzing the migration-fertility nexus. Within the fertility context, I use Bongaarts and Watkins concept of social interaction, whereas within the migration context, I draw on Massey’s capitalist transition theory, and Pessar and Mahler’s ‘gendered geometries of power’. This integrated framework considers three major factors: the sending country, the global context of migration systems, and the receiving country. Gender is the key to understanding fertility decisions within all three levels. Migration from Africa to France is considered in order to exemplify these processes. Bozon’s typology of African demographic patterns shows how and why the sending country matters for future childbearing decisions post-migration. To further explore this facet, four countries are used to evaluate the impact of migrating from specific types of countries on fertility post-migration: Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, and Rwanda. The global context of migration is constantly changing, both encouraging and restraining men and women in particular ways, which also affects fertility choices. Finally, the receiving country interacts with migrants in various ways—immigration policies, the economy, and social institutions—playing important roles in fertility outcomes.Africa, France, fertility, migration

The Political Economy of Immigration Policy

We analyze a newly available dataset of migration policy decisions reported by governments to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs between 1976 and 2007. We find evidence indicating that most governments have policies aimed at either maintaining the status quo or at lowering the level of migration. We also document variation in migration policy over time and across countries of different regions and income levels. Finally, we examine patterns in various aspects of destination countries’ migration policies (policies towards family reunification, temporary vs. permanent migration, high-skilled migration). This analysis leads us to investigate the determinants of migration policy in a destination country. We develop a political economy framework in which voter attitudes represent a key component. We survey the literature on the determinants of public opinion towards immigrants and examine the link between these attitudes and governments’ policy decisions. While we find evidence broadly consistent with the median voter model, we conclude that this framework is not sufficient to understand actual migration policies. We discuss evidence which suggests that interest-groups dynamics may play a very important role.immigration, immigration policy, median voter, interest groups, political economy

SEASONAL MIGRATION OF RETIREES: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Anecdotes suggest that tourism experiences may affect the migration decisions of retirees. Seasonal migration by retirees may be an intermediate step between tourism and permanent migration. A review of the literature on seasonal migration finds that some seasonal migrants become permanent migrants. In general, seasonal and permanent migrants come from two separate migration streams and are two different lifestyles. Seasonal migration generally does not lead to permanent migration.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The effect of local ties, wages, and housing costs on migration decisions

Previous research on migration has focused more on the effect of wage differences between the destination and the origin on migration and less on how non-pecuniary attachments workers have to their current location may affect their migration decisions. In this paper, we examine how the presence of a strong social network and desirable location amenities in the current location may deter individual migration across U.S. metropolitan areas. Our empirical results show that, controlling for wage and housing cost differences between metropolitan areas, workers with strong attachments to their current location are significantly less likely to move. Interestingly, the effects of a strong social network and desirable location amenities on individual migration decisions are more important than the effect of wage or housing cost differentials between the destination and the origin.migration; worker mobility; mobility costs; location amenities; wages; housing costs

Costs and benefits of rural-urban migration : evidence from India

This paper provides new evidence on rural-urban migration decisions in developing countries. Using original survey data from rural India, we show that seasonal migrants prefer to earn 35 percent less on local public works rather than incur the cost of migrating. Structural estimates suggest that the fixed cost of migration is small, and can be entirely explained by travel costs and income risk. In contrast, the flow cost of migration is high. We argue that higher living costs in the city explain only a small part of the flow cost of migration and that most of it is non-monetary

Life-cycle position and migration to urban and rural areas: estimations of a mixed logit model on French data

Migration flows between urban and rural areas in developed countries show a strong difference in migration destinations with regard to age. Our paper analyses, in the French case, who rural areas attract or repel and what their so-called “pull-factors” are. Our goal is to explain the propensity to migrate and the destination choice among four categories of area (urban centres, suburbs, rural areas under urban influence, rural LMAs), for three age groups. Mixed logit models, that do not rely on the IIA assumption and allow for heterogeneity in individual behaviours are estimated on a large French sample. The results show that the educational level of young people and the labour market characteristics of their initial residential area particularly influence their destination choices. The labour market variables have little influence on the migration decisions of the middle-aged, for whom residential motivations appear to be predominant. The migration decisions of 45-64 years old are clearly residentially motivated changes.life-cycle; migration; mixed logit models; urban and rural areas