Economics Of Labor Migration Research Articles

¿Retorno o remesas? Políticas económicas de los Estados de Latinoamérica y el Caribe hacia su diáspora

Explanations of why migrants return to their countries of origin tend to focus on factors at micro and macro levels: from seeing it as individual choice (e. g. neoclassical economics) or household strategy (e. g. new economics of labor migration), to seeing it as determined by structural conditions of receiving or sending countries (e. g. economic cycles, wage differentials, etc.). Yet we know very little about how states of origin combine their policies towards emigrants to establish economic links with them, from remittances to return. With an original dataset for Latin American and Caribbean countries, we can provide an initial descriptive panorama that highlights the choices that countries make in this regard. We compare the return policies to other economic policies geared to emigrants. This helps us in detecting return policies, which is often a neglected dimension in comparative diaspora policy studies, as one among several that states of origin develop to achieve their economic strategies. Also, this first attempt at descriptive analysis provides further paths to explore the causal links behind diaspora policy development in the realm of economic policy.

Women Making Freedom: Locating Gender in Intra-Caribbean Migration from a Curaçaoan Perspective

Historically, neoclassical economic theories have explained migration as a predominantly male endeavor, and the economics of labor migration has neglected women as independent participants and auto...

Influences of labor migration on rural household land transfer: A case study of Sichuan Province, China

The influence of labor migration on rural household land transfer has been hotly debated in academic circles, which focuses on whether part-time employment leads to land transfer. Using survey data on rural households in the Sichuan Province, and applying the theoretical framework of new economics of labor migration, this study explores the influences of labor migration on the direction and scale of land transfer from the perspective of rural household structure. The results indicate that: 1) the quantity of laborers has significant influence on the direction and scale of land transfer. The larger the on-farm labor variable (Labor), the lesser the possibility that land will be rented-out and the amount of land rented out will also be smaller. In addition, there is a greater probability that land will be rented-in and the amount of land rented-in will be greater. 2) The greater the ratio of off-farm laborers to rural household laborers (Off-farm) the greater the possibility that land will be rented-out. In addition the higher the ratio of on-farm laborers to the total household laborers (On-farm), the larger the possibility that land will be rented-in. Meanwhile, if the household has individuals at the age of 64 or older (Old) who are engaged in agriculture, there is a smaller possibility that land will be rented-out. 3) the ratio of part-time laborers to rural household laborers (Pluriactivity) have significant inverse U-shaped influences on the rent-in of land as well as the amount of land rented-in. The inflection points are 33.27% and 14.10%, respectively. Such findings confirm the significance of this study in better understanding the influence of labor migration on rural household land transfer.

Temporary Protected Status and Immigration to the United States

Although immigration reform has proved elusive for more than forty years, presidents from both parties have issued crucial executive actions that regulate inflows of new immigrants and the status of those already in the US. We focus on a particular class of executive actions, those related to granting immigrants Temporary Protected Status (TPS), exploiting the fact that immigrants who hold TPS receive access to the formal US labor market regardless of their legal status. Harnessing the New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM), we hypothesize that granting TPS to immigrants increases remittances to crisis-affected countries, decreasing the demand for both legal and illegal entry into the United States. We find robust statistical support for this hypothesis, and we also use synthetic control methods to evaluate TPS as a policy lever in prominent TPS-eligible countries. Our findings shed light on potentially unintended consequences that flow from providing labor market access to immigrants in the United States.

Chapter 6 – Mobility, migration and transnational connectivity

Chapter 6 – Mobility, migration and transnational connectivity

The new ‘diaspora trap’ framework: Explaining return migration from South Africa to Zimbabwe beyond the ‘failure-success’ framework

This article explores how South Africa-based Zimbabwean skilled migrants are dissuaded from returning home permanently. The study was conceptualised against the background that return migration has often been explained based on migrant failure or success in the host country. This failure-success dichotomy stems from the neo-classical economics theory of migration, the new economics of labour migration and the structuralist approach to return migration. Using a qualitative methodological approach, this article challenges the failure-success theoretical position through an exploration of socio-economic factors in Zimbabwe and South Africa that deter permanent return migration. The article contributes to return migration theorising by introducing a new ‘diaspora trap’ framework which argues that permanent settlement is not always voluntary. Central to this involuntary permanent settlement is the social construction of migrants as successful in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean skilled migrants are thus entrapped in South Africa because of failure to live up to the ‘success social construct,’ and their inability to mitigate adversities in the host country.

Migration and agricultural intensification at origin: evidence from farm households in Central Africa

Migration and remittances has potential to improve development in rural areas but in Rwanda and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo empirical work is still limited. We used New Economics of Labour Migration as analytical framework to explain the role of migration and remittances on crop intensification. A randomly selected sample of 480 farm households were interviewed. We found that out-migration negatively influence input use while remittance does not affect their use either. We recommend smart input subsidies and policy on their distribution to create higher incomes, thus discouraging massive rural out-migration. In addition, creation of an enabling investment environment in the sending areas by improving basic infrastructure and efficiently channelling extension messages to farmers would increase intensification and crop yields.

Theorizing migration-development interactions: towards an integrated approach

Globalization has resulted in accelerated rates of migration of people between countries both nationally and internationally. People often migrate in a bid to diversify their resources such as labour as well as self-insure against livelihood risks. This trend has resulted in an increase in the interactions of migration and development. Migrant remittances have emerged as a key factor constituting the core of these interactions. This paper seeks to review theories on the migration-development nexus in the context of remittances and their role in development. While this paper traces the evolution of migration theory, an attempt will be made to demonstrate the potential for integrating two theories, namely the New Economics of labour Migration and the Sustainable livelihoods Approach. It could be argued that the integration of these theories could best assist in understanding the migration-development nexus in a more holistic fashion. This could assist in a better understanding of migration-development interactions and in coming up with sound development interventions.

THE IMPACT OF MIGRATION AND REMITTANCES ON DISTRIBUTION AND SOURCES OF INCOME: THE MEXICAN RURAL CASE

The objective of this research is to determine the impact of migration and remittances on rural households’ income sources, as well as the implications of these impacts on the income distribution of the source communities. Using data from the Mexico National Rural Household Survey (Encuesta Nacional a Hogares Rurales de México, ENHRUM), the results show that national remittances and the predicted number of internal migrants impact in a positive way the incomes obtained from livestock activities. However, international remittances impact negatively on this income source due to the household’s loss of one of its members. Also, the results support the new economics of labor migration (NELM) hypothesis that points out that the remittances eliminate restrictions in different types of rural households’productive activities.

Estimating the Economic Effects of Remittances on the Left-Behind in Cambodia

Using propensity score matching with the 2009 Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey of households, this study examines the effects of remittances on indicators of household well-being: poverty, consumption and labour participation of non-migrant members. The theoretical framework is built upon a “new economics of labour migration”, hypothesising that the emigration decision is jointly determined by households and individual migrants and that remittances basically represent a form of contractual arrangements between them. The results indicate that households with at least one migrant member and which receive remittances could reduce their poverty headcount rate by 3-7 percentage points vis-a-vis their matched controls. Remittances also reduce depth and severity of poverty of treated households. On the contrary, remittances generate a 5-9 percent “dependency effect” on working age adults who are employed due to reduced weekly hours worked. The impact of remittances on labour participation and salary income is, however, vulnerable to unobservable factors.

Social Determinants of Remitting Practices among Bangladeshi Migrants in Japan

Why do migrants send remittances? Through ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews among Bangladeshi migrants in Tokyo, this article explores the social determinants of migrants’ remitting practices. It offers a realist analytical approach following Durkheim’s perspective on how society determines an individual’s action. It recognizes social relations between the migrants and their families and relatives as the essential foundation for remitting to occur, while migrants’ adherence to social norms, as well as legal and social exclusion in the destination, causes them to participate in various qualitatively distinct remitting practices. Therefore, it argues that migrants’ social relations to the family and community cause them to remit, and changes in these relations result in subsequent changes in their remitting. It complements the New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM) approach by incorporating the social (both relational and spatial) context of remitting. By bringing in migrants’ agency, it also overcomes the limitations in social-cultural approaches that prioritize structural determinants.

Poverty Transition in Rural Vietnam: The Role of Migration and Remittances

This study combines insights of the New Economics of Labour Migration with the asset-based approach to welfare dynamics using panel household data from Vietnam. This method allows us to determine whether poverty transitions induced by remittances are actually structural, that is, based on asset growth and therefore long term, or stochastic, that is, based only on short-term increases in income, which implies a risk of falling back into poverty. To control for endogeneity of remittances, we use household fixed effects and instrumental variables estimation. The paper shows that remittances have a positive impact on asset growth and that the impact differs with welfare status and ethnicity.

Our family comes first: migrants’ perspectives on remittances in disaster

A growing number of studies recognize the importance of remittances in time of disaster. Yet, very little research focuses on migrants’ perspectives. The paper explores the role of Samoan households living in New Zealand who supported their community of origin during and after the 2009 tsunami. It investigates the main determinants guiding remitters’ behaviour and examines the impacts that remitting had on them. The article challenges New Economics of Labour Migration’s co-insurance hypothesis, the dominant conceptual understanding of remittances behaviour. It is found that migrants remitted because of (1) a sense of obligation/responsibility to assist their family, (2) a consciousness of the economic struggles experienced in Samoa and (3) religious ethics. Furthermore, while remitting in the disaster context could imply severe economic impacts on migrants, it also reinforced the social ties they had with the affected community, contributed to their wellbeing and may have increased the community’s resilience to face natural hazards.

Migration and Environment

The concept of environmental migrants occurs frequently in the policy debate, in particular with regard to climate change and the incidence of such migration in low-income countries. This article reviews the economic studies of environmentally induced migration. It includes recent empirical analyses that try to link environmental change to migration flows and the spatial distribution of population. A consensus seems to emerge that there is little likelihood of large increases in international migration flows due to climate variability. The evidence to date shows that regional migration will be affected, however, either on the African continent or internally, within country borders. Theoretically, environmentally induced migration can be analyzed using different frameworks: the classical Harris-Todaro model of rural-urban migration, new economic geography models, models grounded in environmental economics of pollution externalities with free factor mobility, and the new economics of labor migration. I review some of the latest attempts to analyze environmentally induced migration theoretically and the policy-relevant conclusions that can be drawn.

A Missing Element in Migration Theories

From the mid-1950s through the mid1980s, migration between Mexico and the United States constituted a stable system whose contours were shaped by social and economic conditions well-theorized by prevailing models of migration. It evolved as a mostly circular movement of male workers going to a handful of U.S. states in response to changing conditions of labor supply and demand north and south of the border, relative wages prevailing in each nation, market failures and structural economic changes in Mexico, and the expansion of migrant networks following processes specified by neoclassical economics, segmented labor market theory, the new economics of labor migration, social capital theory, world systems theory, and theoretical models of state behavior. After 1986, however, the migration system was radically transformed, with the net rate of migration increasing sharply as movement shifted from a circular flow of male workers going a limited set of destinations to a nationwide population of settled families. This transformation stemmed from a dynamic process that occurred in the public arena to bring about an unprecedented militarization of the Mexico-U.S. border, and not because of shifts in social, economic, or political factors specified in prevailing theories. In this paper I draw on earlier work to describe that dynamic process and demonstrate its consequences, underscoring the need for greater theoretical attention to the self-interested actions of politicians, pundits, and bureaucrats who benefit from the social construction and political manufacture of immigration crises when none really exist.

We never plan to return home: voices of pre-migrant Ghanaian youth

This qualitative study aimed to explore return migration intentions among pre-migrant youth in Ghana. The study applied the neoclassical economics, new economics of labor migration, and structuralist theories. Thirty-four students (16 females and 18 males) were purposively recruited as participants for the study. Each student participated in one out of four digitally recorded focus group discussions. The data were analyzed to identify emerging themes that addressed objectives of the study. Participants were final year undergraduate and graduate university students and their ages ranged from 22 to 34 years. Analysis of the data revealed that participants had plans to migrate to the diaspora to seek income-generating and educational opportunities. Furthermore, evidence showed that the youth included in this study had no intentions of returning to their country of origin due to three major reasons (economic, family pressure, and stigma). For many pre-migrants, returning to their country of origin is not an option, especially if they are able achieve their goals in the diaspora. Given that return migration usually involves labor migrants who did not reap the benefits of higher earnings abroad and were therefore regarded as failed migrants, there is the need for government and other stakeholders to initiate policies that address the socioeconomic and psychological challenges faced by return migrants.

‘Falling Leaves Return To Their Roots’: Taiwanese‐Americans Consider Return Migration

AbstractBecause technical innovation is the engine of growth, nations are eager to attract and retain skilled migrants. This paper uses survey data to explore the intention to return among a highly skilled migrant population: Taiwan‐born household heads in the US. The inquiry is guided by expectations drawn from neo‐classical economics (NE) and the New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM). Multivariate analysis firsts predicts the intention to return, then distinguishes among motives. The results of the first analysis yield some findings consonant with NE and others consonant with NELM, but the results of the second indicate that only respondents motivated by a desire to invest fit the pattern articulated by NELM. Most of the remainder fit the pattern described by NE. Because potential investors comprise just 8.6% of the sample, the paper concludes that NE does a better job predicting the expectations of Taiwanese household heads than does NELM. Yet, most return migration occurs within 5 years of arrival, while the present sample represents all Taiwanese households, regardless of time in the US. Thus, the sample underrepresents migrants with the greatest propensity to return. Consequently, the findings of this research generalise only to relatively settled Taiwanese‐Americans. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Negotiating Migration, Performing Gender

Increasing numbers of independent women labor migrants leave countries in the Global South every year to work overseas. However, our understanding of how exactly gender and migration intersect at the decision-making moment is still inadequate. The new economics of labor migration (NELM) argument that individual migration is a household-level decision has been criticized by feminist scholars for ignoring the gendered social norms and inequitable intra-household power distribution that can make it difficult for prospective independent female labor migrants to leave their homes to work overseas. To reconcile NELM with gender reality, I propose an explicitly gendered, “negotiated migration model” that separates the pre-migratory process into three parts: an individual-level aspiration, the household-/family-level negotiation, and only then, the migration decision. The intermediate negotiation phase is a dynamic, two-sided, discursive site where both the aspiring migrant and her relatives engage in gendering practices and gender performances to bolster their respective positions. Interviews with 139 Filipino migrant domestic workers reveal that successful female migrants win their families' support by coopting gendered scripts prevalent in Philippine society. Rather than attempting to “undo” gender, these women reframe their migration aspirations as a duty, rather than a right, to migrate, and a logical extension of their traditional, supporting roles as daughters, wives, sisters, and/or mothers. Thus, even though these women migrants break gender barriers when it comes to their independent labor migration, they do so by “doing,” rather than “undoing,” gender.

Explaining inter‐provincial migration in China

AbstractChina's growth has led to massive flows of migrants. To analyse the determinants of inter‐provincial migration hypotheses from the classical migration theory, the new economic geography, gravity approach, and the new economics of labour migration have been derived. All traditional assumptions could be confirmed. Inter‐provincial differentials of urban poverty and differentials in inequality do matter. Inequality is regarded as opportunity and motivation to move. The analysis of push‐pull factors of gross migration suggests that pull factors are average wages, unemployment rates, urbanization and income disparity. Urban poverty can be regarded as a counter‐pull factor. Rural poverty and average wage are push factors.

Labour Migration and Risk in India

Internal migration has been a cause of concern and is rampant across India. While migration is a complex issue affected by many different factors, temporal variation in rainfall assumes significant importance as a risk in the rural areas of developing countries. Also important in this context are network effects that reduce the inherent risk at a new destination. Following the theory proposed by the New Economics of Labour Migration, this study investigates the role of risk at origin and risk at destination on a household’s propensity to temporarily and permanently migrate. The study matches household-level migration data from the 64th round of NSS and data with the daily gridded rainfall dataset of 1° ×1° (latitude and longitude) resolution recently released from the Indian Meteorological Department. Risk management behavior of households as a form of coping mechanism in rural areas from where migration for livelihood reasons is incentivized through the agriculture channel is studied by an all-India cross-sectional analysis for 2007-08. Proportion data pertaining to migration propensities of households is estimated using a fractional logit as base model, as well as an ordered logit model. Further, count data pertaining to number of migrant family members in a household is estimated by a poisson regression model. In all specifications, temporal variation in rainfall is found to be a statistically significant factor affecting temporary migration and inter-district permanent migration from rural areas. This variation in rainfall is found not to explain intra-district or inter-state permanent migration. These findings are consistent with the expectations of the study. Due to partial capturing of network effects, they are found to explain intra-district and inter-district migration only. The results of the study make a strong case for risk at origin as an important factor inducing temporary migration and inter-district permanent migration of households from the rural areas of India.