Abstract
Since the 1970s, the Middle East region has dominated the foreign employment market of Sri Lanka. However, Sri Lankan migrants have been paying more attention on moving to South-East Asian and European countries as noted in recent decades. In Sri Lanka, there is a substantial lacuna on the macroeconomic studies related to migration although international migration has a significant impact on economic indicators. As a contribution to reduce this gap, this study examines the macroeconomic determinants of international labor migration from Sri Lanka to South-east Asian and European countries using the gravity model of migration. As, in presence of heteroscedasticity, linear estimators result in inconsistency in estimated coefficients unless we use robust standard errors, Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood estimation technique was used to find the determinants using panel data over the period of 2007 to 2015. Destination-year fixed effects were used to capture unobserved time-variant and time-invariant variables as well as to account for the multilateral resistance. Results reveal that GDP per capita and unemployment rate of Sri Lanka are the push factors which force people to move from Sri Lanka while the destination countries’ population and dependency ratio are the pull factors which attract migrants towards the destination. Moreover, the population of Sri Lanka and poverty headcount ratio were also found as significant determinants of international migration.
Highlights
IntroductionAs elucidated by Perruchoud and Redpath-Cross (2011), labor migration is defined as movement of persons from one country to another (international migration), or within their own country of residence (internal migration) in search of better employment opportunities
As elucidated by Perruchoud and Redpath-Cross (2011), labor migration is defined as movement of persons from one country to another, or within their own country of residence in search of better employment opportunities
The general objective of the paper is to find the determinants of international migration to South-East Asian and European countries
Summary
As elucidated by Perruchoud and Redpath-Cross (2011), labor migration is defined as movement of persons from one country to another (international migration), or within their own country of residence (internal migration) in search of better employment opportunities. Since the latter part of 1990s, policy makers and other related parties have been paying special attention and putting greater emphasis on issues pertaining to international migration, and especially to the international mobility of both skilled and unskilled workers. According to the United Nations (2017), at least, 258 million people of the world have moved to a country from their own country of birth recording an increase of 49% since 2000. 3.4% of the world’s inhabitants today are international migrants according to new figures released by the United Nations (2017). The total number of out migrants of Sri Lanka on employment abroad at present is estimated to be 212,162 (males 66%, females 34%) (Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment [SLBFE], 2017)
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