Economics Of Labor Migration Research Articles

Modelos Multietápicos para la Migración Rural-Urbana y la Producción Agrícola en Perú: 2022

Based on the New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM), rural-urban migration has a significant and adverse impact on the agricultural production of peruvian households. The emigration of a household member to urban areas is related, on average, to a reduction in the value of the household’s agricultural production of up to 48%. It is essential to implement policies that address the economic and social challenges derived from this migration, as well as promote strategies that guarantee the food security of rural communities, recognizing the crucial role of active agricultural workers in this process. Remittances also exert a negative influence on agricultural productive value, although moderate, with a drop of 12% compared to an increase of 10%. This last finding contradicts the results of Taylor (1999) and Bassie et al. (2022), where a positive relationship is established.

Climate variability and migration in Bihar: An empirical analysis

The increased frequency and severity of natural hazards threaten rural livelihoods and accentuate rural to urban migration in developing countries. In this paper, we study the relationship between climate variability, hazards and migration in the context of Bihar, a state in India, experiencing floods every year affecting lives, livelihoods and loss and damage to public infrastructures. The extant literature shows that communities exposed to repeated disasters resort to migration as an adaptation strategy. An enquiry into the reasons behind migration have been a continuous process but the complex inter-connections between economic, geographic, socio-politico and environmental or even the human psychological factors, make such an enquiry complicated. The study consider 29 districts in the state and use data from three Census rounds (1991, 2001 and 2011) to empirically analyse the relationship. The theoretical foundations of the New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM, 1985) provides the basis for the empirical analysis. We use the 2SLS approach for analysing this relationship. The results show that higher flood intensity may increase migration outflow. Further, temperature variability and rainfall variability statistically affect the flood intensity index but the impact of the latter is found to be weaker. NELM is partially validated by the findings from this study and therefore, contrary to general perception that relative deprivation and growth prospects are the only factor behind mobility, we find climatic variability too play an important role.

Climate Induced Migration of Wolof Farmers Into Foni Bondali District, Gambia

Adger, W.N., Kelly, P.M., Winkels, A., Huy, L.Q. and Locke, C. (2002). Migration, remittances, livelihood trajectories, and social resilience. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, Vol. 31 No. 4, p. 358-366. Alagie Bah. (2018). Farmers Awareness and Adaptation to Climate Change in Kaffrine Region of Senegal. German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the West African Science Service Centre in Climate Change and Adapted Land Use Bhatta, G.D., Aggarwal, P.K., Kristjanson, P. and Shrivastava, A.K. (2016). Climatic and non climatic factors influencing changing agricultural practices across different rainfallregimes in South Asia”, Current Science Vol. 110 No. 7, p. 1272. Census of the Gambia (2014). Government of the Gambia, Banjul Chandan Kumar, Jha, Vijaya Gupta, Utpal Chattopadhyay, Binilkumar and Amarayil Sreeraman. (2017). Migration as adaptation strategy to cope with climate change: A study of farmers’ migration in rural India. International Journal of Climate ChangeStrategies and Management. Volume 10:1 Cho Renee. (2021). Climate Migration: An Impending Global Challenge. Columbia ClimateSchool. Climate, Earth and Society. Climate of Foni Bondali District (2022). Ministry of Water Resources, Banjul, Gambia. Conway, D. and Cohen, J.H. (1998). Consequences of migration and remittances for Mexicantransnational communities. Economic Geography, Vol. 74 No. 1, pp. 26-44. Bradatan, C. and Hayhoe, K. (2013). Migration and Climate change in Senegal. Texas Tech University De Haan, A., Brock, K. and Coulibaly, N. (2002). Migration, livelihoods and institutions:contrasting patterns of migration in Mali. Journal of Development Studies. Vol. 38 No. 5, pp. 37-58. De Haas, H. (2010), Migration and development: a theoretical perspective1. The InternationalMigration Review. Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 227-264. Jha, C.K., Gupta, V., Chattopadhyay, U. and Amarayil Sreeraman, B. (2018). Migration as adaptation strategy to cope with climate change: A study of farmers’ migration in rural India. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management. Vol. 10 No.1, pp. 121-141. Massey, D.S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A. and Taylor, J.E. (1993).Theories of international migration: a review and appraisal. Population and Development. Review. Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 431-466. Oli Brown. (2007). Fighting Climate Change: Human solidarity in a divided world. Human Development Report 2007/2008. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/climate-forced-migration.pdf Science for Environment Policy. (2015). Migration in response to environmental change. European Commission. Thematic Issue 51. Taylor, E.J. (1999). The new economics of labour migration and the role of remittances in the migration Process. International Migration (Geneva, Switzerland). Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 63-88. Woodruff, C. and Zenteno, R. (2007). Migration networks and microenterprises in Mexico. Journal of Development Economics. Vol. 82 No. 2, pp. 509-528.

Real estate in the home country: Why Polish migrants keep properties in Poland

AbstractReal estate is often the most visible contribution that emigrants add to their home country's landscape. Such properties serve different functions, from rental investments, through migrant families' homes, to holiday homes or empty spaces. Economists often view real estate through financial lens, frowning upon vacant houses. I argue that keeping vacant houses is often caused by social and emotional factors rather than financial ones. This article uses data from 120 qualitative interviews with Polish EU migrants and juxtaposes them with the typology of remittance houses proposed by Boccagni and Erdal. The data, combined with the theoretical perspective of Neoclassical Economics, New Economics of Labour Migration, and Grzymała‐Kazłowska's concept of social anchoring, allow me to improve the typology. The updated typology systematises the functions of and reasons why migrants keep properties in their home countries and provides a sound frame for future research and policymaking.

Assessing the impact of off-farm employment on land efficiency in different patterns: Field evidence from post-reform China

The three rights separation reform (TRSR) has laid a concrete foundation institutionally to guide the well-ordered transfer of farmland and promoting the development of urbanization. With the new economics of labour migration (hereinafter referred to as the NELM) theory as the analytic basis, this empirical research investigates the potential ramifications of off-farm employment on land efficiency with household-based survey data from four provinces in China after TRSR. Unlike existing studies, we delve into how the effects are manifested differently among the types of off-farm employment by adopting an ordinary least squares (OLS) model and a two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimator. It provides evidence that migration positively affect land efficiency significantly, whereas a negative impact of local off-farm employment on land efficiency is observed, which distinct this study from previous findings. From the perspective of policy-making, land administrators should realize that off-farm employment differentiation is an important factor affecting land efficiency, and therefore needs to be fully considered in policy-making. Meanwhile, the establishment of local labor markets and favorable policies that stimulate productive technologies are needed.

Time to Mainstream the Environment into Migration Theory?

As with all social processes, human migration is a dynamic process that requires regular theoretical reflection; this article offers such reflection as related to the role of the natural environment in contemporary migration research and theory. A growing body of evidence suggests that environmental contexts are increasingly shifting social and ecological realities in ways that are consequential to migration theory. We review some of this evidence, providing examples applicable to core migration theories, including neoclassical economic and migration systems perspectives, the "push-pull" framework, and the new economics of labor migration. We suggest that neglecting consideration of the natural environment may yield misspecified migration models that attribute migration too heavily to social and economic factors particularly in the context of contemporary climate change,. On the other hand, failure to consider migration theory in climate scenarios may lead to simplistic projections and understandings, as in the case of "climate refugees". We conclude that migration researchers have an obligation to accurately reflect the complexity of migration's drivers, including the environment, within migration scholarship especially in the context of global climate change.

Incomplete Urbanization and the Trans-Local Rural-Urban Gradient in China: From a Perspective of New Economics of Labor Migration

The urbanization in China is “incomplete” and the migration of non-hukou migrants is circular, wherein rural migrants often keep their rural land in the home village as a social safety net. The informal housing market is one of the main housing providers for migrant workers. Existing studies see informal housing as the migrants’ passive choice under the discriminatory hukou system, while underplaying the migrants’ familial multi-site tenure strategies between village homes and city places. As suggested by New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM), attachment to a place of origin (such as keeping hometown lands), while choosing informal housing at the destination, is a familial utility maximization strategy that can control risks when migrating between locations. Informal housing areas, therefore, become a trans-local rural-urban gradient and semi-urban landscape. We use the 2017 Migrant Dynamics Monitoring Survey data and the binary logistic regression to examine (a) whether hometown landowning is a significant predictor of the migrants’ choosing of a temporary stay in informal settlements in urban destinations, and (b) which kind of hometown land arrangement (farmland or homestead holding or both of them) is the strongest indicator of the higher probability of staying in informal settlements in urban destinations? The data analysis reveals that homestead in hometown is a more prominent pulling factor than farmland to “glue” rural migrants together within an integrated rural land “insurance regime” between the migrant-sending and -receiving places. The land-use and informal housing governance (including urban village demolition) ignore the trans-local nature of the migratory networks and semi-urbanizing dynamics. The traditional analysis of the rural-urban gradient with many landscapes should consider the functional and tenurial linkage between the locations at different points along with the complex migration activities.

Heterogeneous effects of rural–urban migration and migrant earnings on land efficiency: Empirical evidence from China

On the basis of the conceptual framework of the new economics of labour migration (NELM), this paper demonstrates the effects of rural–urban migration and migrant earnings on land efficiency supported by household-based survey data in six Chinese provinces. Unlike existing literature, we differentiated the effects according to the type of migration and household wealth concurrently. By adopting a two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimator and a recursive mixed-process model, we provide evidence that seasonal and permanent migration negatively affects land efficiency but with no significant difference between the two effects. Migrant earnings results in higher land efficiency, but the compensating effects fall with an increase in household wealth. Interactive analysis on the basis of three wealth groups also illustrates the large compensating effect in the group with less wealth and a descending trend in face of increase in household wealth, which further confirms the robustness of the results.

Remain or return? Return migration intentions of Brazilian immigrants in Japan

AbstractThis paper aims to explore the factors associated with the return intentions of Brazilians in Japan. It examines hypotheses drawn from two economic perspectives of migration, neoclassical economics (NE) and the New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM) using survey data obtained from the Shizuoka Prefecture. The degree of sociocultural integration and immigrants’ ties to Brazil and Japan are also considered. The findings support both NE and NELM, suggesting that Brazilian immigrants in Japan are a diverse group, differing substantially in their migration motivations and family strategies. However, one‐third of immigrants are undecided about whether to stay or return. In the future, the number of intended stayers is expected to increase as schooling in Japan is one of the strongest determinants of intention to stay. Future research should focus on the transitions of immigrants’ return intentions, as the indecisiveness may exert a negative impact on immigrant children's integration.

Migration, family and networks: Timorese seasonal workers' social support in Australia

This paper explores the social support of Timorese workers under the Australian Seasonal Workers Programme (SWP). The SWP, which allows citizens from Pacific Island countries and Timor‐Leste to work in Australian agriculture for six to nine months, has become the major source of remittances for seasonal workers from Timor‐Leste. The paper describes how access to the internet and the availability of social media devices can help to maintain long‐distance family relationships, support migrants' well‐being and alleviate the effects of socio‐spatial segregation to some extent. However, the need to earn remittances in a fixed period of time forces them to accept a trade‐off in the quality of their social and personal lives in rural Australia. According to the New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM), isolation and separation from families are part of a rational household strategy to accumulate remittances. This paper argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the social costs borne by workers and left‐behind households and that the sustainability of the SWP depends to a large extent on the ability of workers to find ways of meeting their needs for social support. The analysis is based on data from participant observation and semi‐structured interviews with 50 Timorese seasonal workers in Australia and Timor‐Leste.

Bride kidnapping and gendered labor migration: evidence from Kyrgyzstan

ABSTRACT Because the decision to migrate is a product of gendered negotiations within households, households formed through forced marriage may have different migration strategies than households formed through voluntary marriage. In Kyrgyzstan, we anticipate two possible effects of the traditional practice of bride kidnapping on migration. Households headed by a kidnap couple may be more cohesive and patriarchal, facilitating men’s labour migration and remittance-sending. Alternately, women may use migration to escape such households. We test these two hypotheses using a sample of 1,171 households in rural Kyrgyzstan. Kidnap households are more likely to include women migrants, compared to other households. Kidnap households are also more likely to be receiving remittances, even when controlling for migrant household members. However, traditional beliefs about kidnapping are negatively associated with men’s and women’s migration. While higher levels of remittance receipt among kidnap households resembles the unified, patriarchal households envisioned in the New Economics of Labour Migration, it also appears that women use labour migration as a means to escape patriarchal constraints. We demonstrate that forced marriage in Kyrgyzstan plays a larger social role than is often believed, and highlight a new pathway through which gendered power dynamics can shape household migration strategies.

Migration Policy in the Context of Sustainable Development

The issues of sustainable development are related to the need in order to reduce poverty, inequality, insecurity, inclusion of immigrants in the system of education and health care, which contradicts the effective long-term solution of the global goals of EU migration policy. The aim of the research is to study the effectiveness of migration policy in the context of sustainable development on the example of EU countries in order to formulate proposals for overcoming the problems of inequality and poverty as priority goals. The results of the research complement the theory of the new economics of labour migration, considering this concept as a way to maximize income and reduce the risk of revenue through education, higher wages and a way to get better health and education services, access to developed infrastructure. However, the heterogeneity of the effects of migration is also reflected in the inability to obtain health services and access to the education system due to the high cost. All this exacerbates the problems of inequality and poverty due to the imbalance of both income and the cost of social services in different EU countries. It has been determined that the policy of integration of immigrants does not ensure the achievement of the goal of inclusive and equitable socialeconomic welfare. Inequality, in particular, gender one remains the main problem of sustainable development through illegal employment and different levels of remuneration. It has been proved that training should be considered in the context of sustainable development as providing access to the education system and programs. Despite the growing participation in educational programs and training of immigrants, the problems of inequality and poverty remain a priority for ensuring sustainable development.

Impact of occupational migration of unskilled labourer from domestic agriculture on farm business income in source households of Assam, India

PurposeThe present study aims at examining the determinants of occupational migration of unskilled labourer from domestic agriculture and their impact on farm business income (FBI) in Assam, India.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data for this study were collected during June–November, 2019 from 224 farm (cultivator) households in two contiguous districts in central Brahmaputra valley of Assam. The study used three-stage least square (3SLS) estimation technique for jointly determining the factors influencing migration and remittances and their impact on FBI.FindingsThe result of this study confirms that occupational migration of unskilled labourer from domestic agriculture significantly reduced household FBI. In contrast to the inflow of remittances from migrants helped in increasing the FBI. The migration in the study area considerably influenced by household size, total value of assets holding, networking influence, distance to commercial bank and flood proneness of the village; while the number of migrants, number of dependents and age of migrants seen to be strong predictor of inflow of remittances. Findings of present study offer evidence in support of the new economics of labour migration (NELM) theory.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is restricted to a single crop (paddy) and constrained by the collection of longitudinal data with a revisit to the farm household pre and post-migration of the unskilled labourer from household agriculture.Originality/valueThis paper is based on a novel data set that has especially been collected to examine the determinants of occupational migration from agriculture and their impact on the FBI in Assam that has not been studied before.

From individual motivations to social determinants: towards a sociology of migrants’ remittances

AbstractMigrants may send remittances for a variety of reasons. Studies adopting the perspective of the new economics of labour migration (NEML) identify migrants’ altruism or self‐interest as the motivation for their remittances. This paper first recognises the limits of the NELM perspective due to its utilitarian conception of migrants’ altruism and inability to distinguish between altruism and self‐interest. The discussion also reveals a preponderance of quantitative studies examining remittance utilisation in the origin communities in the absence of the migrants who are sending the funds. These studies must necessarily indirectly deduce migrants’ motivation to send remittances, leading to post hoc and inconsistent interpretations. In a review of the existing literature, this paper identifies alternative conceptualisations of migrants’ agency and structures embedding their remittances as well as emergent properties of both their agency and those structures. Lastly, it outlines a heuristic typology to empirically study migrants’ remittances following Durkheim's approach to suicide, demonstrating the usefulness of this typology by citing examples from the literature as well as reflecting the author's dissertation research.

Do international remittances accelerate out-farm labor migration in developing countries? A dynamic panel time-series analysis

PurposeA major policy issue facing leaders in the developing world is whether international migration, through remittances, contributes to the development process in migrant-sending communities or impedes the efficient allocation of labor and human capital at the origin countries. This study examines the impact of remittance inflows on out-farm migration of farm labor toward the nonfarm sector. Specifically, this study shows how international migrant remittances may alter the predictions of out-farm migration models by Harris–Todaro.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use unbalanced panel time-series data on 77 developing countries between 1991 and 2010 within a dynamic panel time-series framework to estimate the impact of remittances on the out-farm migration rate.FindingsThe authors find two competing effects of remittances on out-farm migration of labor in developing countries. First, remittances decelerate the out-farm migration rates by supplementing farm income and consumption expenditures. Second, remittances provide a source of investment in nonfarm activities that increase the rate of migration out of agriculture over time. Combining these effects, on average, our elasticity estimates indicate that a 10% increase in remittances reduces the migration out of agriculture, on average, by 0.5% in developing countries over time.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors findings align with the “developmentalist” or “optimistic” views of international migration. International migration, through remittances, help make the inevitable transition out of the farm sector smoother for developing countries.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to extend the empirical literature on macro-level determinants of out-farm migration within the Harris–Todaro framework to explicitly account for the impacts of remittances inflows into developing countries that the new economics of labor migration (NELM) theory hypothesizes.

Remittance Behaviour of Intra-EU Migrants – Evidence from Hungary

After the eastern expansion of the European Union (EU), a large number of emigrants left their home countries to work in economically better developed western member states. Hungary followed this EU emigration trend with a certain time lag. However, the rising number of emigrants caused structural problems in the domestic labour market. A comprehensive examination of intra-EU remittances as one of the major determinants of migration has been outside the scope of recent research activity. The data from the Hungarian Microcensus survey and the first Hungarian household survey focusing on the topic of remittances can provide a valuable case study of intra-EU private transfer flows.
 The aims of this study are twofold. On the one hand we intend to provide empirical evidence for the major factors that determine remittance propensity by calculating probit regressions. On the other hand, OLS regressions are calculated in order to introduce variables which are associated with money transfers. These results are interpreted within the theoretical framework of the New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM) to identify the underlying motivations for remittances. The most important findings are that older men with vocational school education have the highest remittance propensity, and the likelihood of sending private support is higher among short-term migrants. As the key factors, the income of the sender person is positively associated with the sum of money flows, while the income of the receiving household is negatively associated. Within the theoretical framework of NELM, these results favour the dominance of altruistic motives, since supporting the household members who remain behind seems to be the major driving force. However, when intentions of returning home are considered in the models, it seems that self-interest might also play a role as a driver of remittances. Within this study, the main focus was on the characteristics of the senders, meaning that a possible field of future research could be an examination of these questions from the perspective of remittance receiver households.

International migration and household living arrangements among transnational families in Brazil

ABSTRACT Much has been discussed in the international literature about the relationship between family arrangements and migration decision-making, although few studies have done so through the analysis of quantitative data from migrants’ countries of origin. Based on the theoretical contributions brought by the New Economics of Labor Migration and Transnationalism, we investigate how three intervening factors affect household living arrangements in the migrant’s country of origin: people’s life-cycle stages, migration regimes, and family normative systems. Using as case study the municipality of Governador Valadares, Brazil, the country’s main international emigration hotspot, we draw on a mixed-methods approach that includes the analysis of the Brazilian Census and novel survey data, in addition to 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with migrants’ relatives and returnees. The results point to clear differences between the structure of households with and without international emigrants. The reasons for these differences may be two-fold: (a) international emigration is an important factor leading to the rearrangement of family care systems, and (b) migration decision-making processes are dependent upon particular household structures, family norms and migration regimes.

Environmental migration and displacement: a new theoretical framework for the study of migration aspirations in response to environmental changes

ABSTRACTMigration has existed in all times and places and people have migrated for a variety of (combined) reasons: environmental, economic, political, humanitarian, social and cultural. While social and political conflicts that have arisen out of environmental changes are not new, environmental changes have placed some living conditions and other reasons for migration under even more pressure. In this paper, we combine insights from two approaches to the study of environmental migration and displacement – namely ‘the sustainable livelihoods approach’ and ‘the new economics of labour migration’ – and build further on existing models and theories of migration aspirations and dynamics. Based on these insights, we develop a theoretical framework on the study of migration aspirations and how they take shape within the existing structural constraints or capabilities for people living in areas heavily affected by environmental change using a multilevel perspective. The novelty of this model is that it focuses on migration aspirations when confronted with environmental changes. The multilevel approach, which includes the local social environment, incorporating the culture of migration of the living environment, one’s personal local and transnational networks, perceptions on environmental changes and local discourses thereof, is therefore of particular relevance.

Does labor off-farm employment inevitably lead to land rent out? Evidence from China

The focus of land economics is on how to decrease the misallocation of resources to achieve an optimal allocation of resources. Both the theories of new economics of labor migration (NELM) and the conclusions of empirical studies reveal that land resources will inevitably be reallocated (e.g., rented out) if the resources of family labor are reallocated (e.g., off-farm employment). However, this study reveals that off-farm employment does not inevitably lead to land rent out. More precisely, this study uses survey data on 8031 peasant households from 27 provinces in China and explores the relationship between off-farm employment and land rent out by describing spatial features and through empirical analysis (e.g., IV-Probit model and IV-Tobit model). The results show the following: 1) There is an indirect relationship between off-farm employment and land rent out regarding spatial area aggregation, i.e., regions with a higher ratio of off-farm employment also have a lower area of land rent out. 2) Off-farm employment is significantly positively correlated with the behavior of land rent out, but its square is significantly negatively correlated with the behavior, i.e., there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between off-farm employment and the behavior of land rent out, with the turning point being 55.55% off-farm employment. 3) Off-farm employment is significantly positively correlated with the area of land rent out, but its square is significantly negatively correlated with the area, i.e., there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between off-farm employment and the area of land rent out, with the turning point being 56.22% off-farm employment. This study helps explain why China has a high ratio of off-farm employment but a lower rate of land rent out.

Development impacts of migration and remittances on migrant-sending communities: Evidence from Ethiopia.

This paper evaluates the development impacts of migration and remittances in migrant source communities by applying insights from the New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM) theory to Ethiopia’s migration. Using household survey data, we empirically evaluate how household participation in migration arises and so that the subsequent labor losses and the influx of remittances affect income sources and asset accumulation of smallholder farm households. To account several econometric issues and consistently estimate the impacts of migration and remittances, we adopted three-stage least-squares method complemented with endogeneity and multicollinearity test. Besides, using logistic and multinomial logistic regressions respectively, we estimate the determinants of the household migration decision to have migrants, as well as the probability of the household to send out temporary or permanent migrants. Findings suggest that larger and wealthier households are less likely to have migrant family members, while households living below the poverty line, as well as villages with the highest unemployment rate, are the most likely to have both temporary and permanent migrants. However, a rise in months spent out of agriculture has a significant negative effect on crop income and asset accumulation, but only for permanent migration. By contrast, the influx of remitted income from migrants has led to increased crop income and asset values in the form of land and livestock holdings. Finally, this manuscript provides more comprehensive evidence by showing the net-returns of migration in terms of initial lost-labor effects and the positive developmental impacts that it produces varied for households with different types of migration and production conditions.