Publication: Diaspora Effects in International Migration : Key Questions and Methodological Issues
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Date
2010
ISSN
03039692
Published
2010
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This paper reviews the existing literature on the impact of migrants networks on the patterns of international migration. It covers the theoretical channels at stake in the global effect of the networks. It identifies the key issues, namely the impact on size, selection and concentration of the migration flows. The paper also reviews the empirical hurdles that the researchers face in assessing the importance of networks. The key issues concern the choice of micro vs a macro approach, the definition of a network, the access to suitable data and the adoption of econometric methods accounting for the main features of those data. Finally, the paper reports a set of estimation outcomes reflecting the main findings of the macro approach.
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Publication Diaspora Effects in International Migration : Key Questions and Methodological Issues(2011-06-01)This paper reviews the existing literature on the impact of migrants networks on the patterns of international migration. It covers the theoretical channels at stake in the global effect of the networks. It identifies the key issues, namely the impact on size, selection and concentration of the migration flows. The paper also reviews the empirical hurdles that the researchers face in assessing the importance of networks. The key issues concern the choice of micro vs a macro approach, the definition of a network, the access to suitable data and the adoption of econometric methods accounting for the main features of those data. Finally, the paper reports a set of estimation outcomes reflecting the main findings of the macro approach.Publication Diasporas(2009-07-01)Migration flows are shaped by a complex combination of self-selection and out-selection mechanisms. In this paper, the authors analyze how existing diasporas (the stock of people born in a country and living in another one) affect the size and human-capital structure of current migration flows. The analysis exploits a bilateral data set on international migration by educational attainment from 195 countries to 30 developed countries in 1990 and 2000. Based on simple micro-foundations and controlling for various determinants of migration, the analysis finds that diasporas increase migration flows, lower the average educational level and lead to higher concentration of low-skill migrants. Interestingly, diasporas explain the majority of the variability of migration flows and selection. This suggests that, without changing the generosity of family reunion programs, education-based selection rules are likely to have a moderate impact. The results are highly robust to the econometric techniques, accounting for the large proportion of zeros and endogeneity problems.Publication Diasporas(2011)Migration flows are shaped by a complex combination of self-selection and out-selection mechanisms, both of which are affected by the presence of a diaspora abroad. In this paper, we analyze how existing diasporas (the stock of people born in a country and living in another one) affect the size and human-capital structure of current bilateral migration flows. Our analysis exploits a bilateral data set on international migration by educational attainment from 195 countries to 30 OECD countries in 1990 and 2000. Based on simple micro-foundations and controlling for various determinants of migration, we found that diasporas increase migration flows and lower their average educational level. Interestingly, diasporas explain majority of the variability of migration flows and selection. This suggests that, without changing the generosity of family reunion programs, education-based selection rules are likely to have moderate impact. Our results are highly robust to the econometric techniques, accounting for the large proportion of zeros and endogeneity problems.Publication International Migration, Transfers of Norms and Home Country Fertility(2009-05-01)This paper examines the relationship between international migration and source country fertility. The impact of international migration on source country fertility may have a number of causes, including a transfer of destination countries' fertility norms and an incentive to acquire more education. It provides provide a rigorous test of the diffusion on of fertility norms using original and detailed data on migration. The results provide evidence of a significant transfer of fertility norms from migrants to their country of origin: a one percent decrease in the fertility norm to which migrants are exposed reduces home country fertility by about 0.3 percent for origin countries.Publication Measuring International Skilled Migration(World Bank, 2007-05-30)Measuring International Skilled Migration: A New Database Controlling for Age of Entry Michel Beine, Frederic Docquier, and Hillel Rapoport Recent data on international migration of skilled workers define skilled migrants by education level without distinguishing whether they acquired their education in the home or the host country. Using these data and a simple gravity model to estimate the age-of-entry structure of the remaining 23 percent, alternative brain drain measures are proposed that exclude immigrants who arrived before ages 12, 18, and 22. the Belgian National Fund for Economic Research, professor of economics at the Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), and a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn) and the Center for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London; his email address is docquier ires.ucl.ac.be. Hillel Rapoport (corresponding author) is senior lecturer in economics at Bar-Ilan University, a member of EQUIPPE, Universites de Lille (EA CNRS 4018), and a research fellow at the Center for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London; his email address is hillel mail.biu.ac.il. This article is part of the World Bank Migration and Development Program, which provided financial support. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions oxfordjournals.org 249 250 THE WORLD BANK ECONOMIC REVIEW source country, which should consider as skilled emigrants only people who received post-secondary training in their home country. After zeros and a few suspicious observations were eliminated, 1,580 observations remained for each age threshold (1990 and 2000 included). Survey data are not available for many countries, and when they are (for example, in the EU Labor Force Survey and in the European Community Household Panel), they do not provide representative cross-sectional pictures of immigrants' characteristics. Included as origin country characteristics in Zk are i democracy indicators and measures of public expenditures on primary, secondary, and tertiary education. And included as host country characteristics in Wk f are indicators of social expenditures, education expenditures,3 and degree of openness to immigration. Bringing together the census data on age of entry, which represent 77 percent of skilled immigrants to the OECD, and the estimated structure computed using the results of the parsimonious model for the remaining 23 percent5 provides alternative measures of the brain drain from which skilled immigrants who arrived before a given age are excluded.
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