Emigration Flows Research Articles

Migration processes in Kazakhstan: Trends, specifics, factors

Object: to identify the main trends in external and internal migration in Kazakhstan, to study the characteristics of its different flows, and to describe the economic and demographic factors affecting migration processes. Migration processes in the Republic of KazakhstanMethods: methods of system, dynamic and structural analysis, and methods of studying cause-andeffect relationships.Results: We have identified trends in external and internal migration in Kazakhstan in the last decade; we have studied the characteristic features of migration flows in Kazakhstan and the factors affecting the migration activity of the population; we have addressed the issue of unregulated migration in Kazakhstan and described the risks associated with it, as well as the possibility of migration policies in addressing this issue.Conclusions: In recent years, the negative balance of external migration has been growing; there is a net outflow from Kazakhstan. The intensity of ethnic repatriation of Kazakhs, which previously would block the flow of emigration, is now decreasing. Measures are needed to halt the outflow of migrants from Kazakhstan and to encourage immigration into Kazakhstan. In recent years, the state has been actively pursuing an internal migration policy: mechanism for registering migrants within the country has been strengthened, and a quota has been established for resettlement to the northern and north-eastern regions of Kazakhstan.

Labour market efficiency and emigration in Slovakia and EU neighbouring countries

Slovakia has experienced a six-year period of decreased labour market efficiency during a post-crisis period and growing emigration flows before and after a post-crisis period. There is also the concurrent issue of the lack of sufficient business activities in the southern, northern and eastern regions, and the economic development of some of the Slovak regions lacks diversification. We have analysed labour market conditions and emigration trends in Slovakia and EU neighbouring countries. The analysis of emigration trends has shown that among EU neighbouring countries, the Slovak migrant population tends to migrate mostly to the Czech Republic. We conducted regression analysis with the use of the ordinary least squares method to identify the main drivers affecting emigration from Slovakia to the Czech Republic as the primary destination country for Slovak migrants. The analysis has revealed that unemployment rates in both countries, labour market regulation which was introduced in the Czech Republic as well as EU enlargement in 2004 are the most significant triggers for emigration in Slovakia. Based on the results obtained, we have discussed possible ways to stimulate economic growth and prevent future emigration from Slovakia.

Brazilian university students in Spain: Motivations and decision factors

Purpose: Our research objective is to carry out an analysis of the motivations and specific decision factors of Brazilian university students who will travel to Spain to continue their studies. Design/methodology/approach: The applied methodology has been to conduct online surveys among members of the Brazilian student community in Spain. For the design of the survey, we started with a previous exploratory study with in-depth individual interviews. The interviews were conducted based on a semi-structured questionnaire inspired by the previous literature.Findings: The comparison between the previous studies in the literature and the results of the survey shows that the factors “Academic level of the center” and “Prestige and prospects” of having studied abroad coincide with one another. Indeed, these factors are among the most significant in almost all of the studies and have also been highlighted by the respondents, confirming the importance of these factors in their decision to study abroad. On the other hand, the rest of the factors that appear to be the most relevant in the survey results are specific to and characterize the flow of students analyzed. Specifically, they concern the international experience, scholarships, image and culture of the country and the language.Research limitations/implications: The sample is limited, due to the difficulty of contacting this type of subject, which made it necessary for the researchers to adopt various approach strategies.Practical implications: The results obtained can benefit the recruitment of Brazilian students.Social implications: Contributes to knowledge of the emigration flows and relations between the two countries.Originality/value: The specific topic of Brazilian students in Spain has not been previously discussed.

EMIGRATION, REMITTANCES AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE BALTIC STATES: A REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE

The Baltic States have been facing higher emigration flows since joining the EU in 2004. While integrating to the EU, this region has faced many economic and political issues, which revealed the weaknesses of their economic policies, financial systems and social security systems. Even though after the EU accession in 2004 the Baltic economies have demonstrated rapid economic growth, still their financial performance under the economic crisis has evidently shown their weaknesses. The Baltic States is a crucial example of the regions where the current emigration has drawn the attention of the policy-makers seeking to reduce the possible negative effects from the emigration of young and well-skilled workers. Here, we have employed fixed effects and OLS estimation methods to conduct our research analysis. Our regression analysis has demonstrated that remittances positively and significantly contribute to the economic growth of the Baltic. However, we also need to emphasize the importance of further analysis of the geography of remittances to the region, especially under the conditions of Brexit, given the fact that for many years a large share of remittances the Baltics were receiving from the United Kingdom. The effects of Brexit on the remittances flows from the United Kingdom to the Baltics will definitely take place in the future, thus, shifts in emigration flows and remittances should be in the focus of future research.

Actors in Social Agriculture Cooperatives Combating Organized Crime in Southern Italy: Cultivating the Ground

Southern Italy suffers from a high poverty rate, unemployment, emigration flows, and a strong presence of organized crime in the field of agriculture. This study seeks to investigate the potential of social enterprises as driving forces for the legal and eco-social development of fragile Southern Italian areas. To work in such challenging contexts requires the development of a high level of resilience, which implies the ability to adapt to difficulties and to overcome crises by coming out stronger than before. The initiatives we detected in Southern Italy are examples for the strength that can come from ideal motivations. In the case of social agriculture initiatives in Southern Italy counteracting organized crime, these motivations are an indispensable condition for their survival and growth. The accumulation of problems and difficulties, however, risks corroding motivations of the actors. This can lead to the withdrawal of members, which can have a serious impact on these small organizations. Thus, idealism is a necessary condition to face the challenges of legal and social environmental development, but it is not sufficient on its own, except in the short term, to allow social enterprises to emerge from extremely precarious conditions. Idealism can support resilience, but by itself, it cannot create a sustainable change. There is, therefore, the need to invest in these social enterprises, in the training of the actors involved, and in the selection and acquisition of the skills for strengthening the efficiency and sustainability of businesses and to foster horizontal structures of mutuality and solidarity to create a supportive environment for these social enterprises and their mission.

Navigating Dropull through liminal spaces and thresholds

Dropull – a case of “territory in between” The condition in Dropull as an excuse for the study of concepts such as liminality and threshold. Located at the heart of a cross-border macro-region, between Albania and Greece, the area of Dropull represents a space of various potentials, a territory in-between, and a rural threshold, which is constantly challenged. Dropull is a profoundly rural area, located in the threshold between Drinos River valley and the mountain chains of Nëmërçka and Bureto, thus in a very dynamic territory of various landscape features, which tie together a macro-region between Albania and Greece. It is also located along a very important economic corridor that goes in parallel with the river, and in between Gjirokastra and Ioannina, two regional centers of a cross-border macro-region between the two countries. Over years, this very strategic positioning has conditioned a very welcoming climate for businesses and industries as well, giving Dropull yet another potential to explore and make use of, in terms of development of the economy. Nevertheless, albeit its rural character and the potentials that are tied to it, and the welcoming atmosphere that its geographical positioning offers to businesses and industries, Dropull is part of one of the peripheral regions of the country, which over years has suffered the lack of policies to properly address the development of local economy, consequently followed by a critical abandonment and shrinkage, due to very active out-migration flows, manifested in seasonal fluctuations as well.

Human mobility restrictions and inter-provincial migration during the COVID-19 crisis in China

The governmental responses to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, including the approach, interventions, and their associated effectiveness, vary across social, cultural, political, and institutional contexts. In China, the Wuhan lockdown significantly reduced the transmission of COVID-19 throughout the country. Chinese central and local governments’ responses to disease containment and mitigation were uniform in policymaking but implemented differently across local governing contexts. This study examines the variation in the effects of human mobility restrictions on inter-provincial migration flow during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. The results show that mobility restrictions reduced the inter-provincial in-migration flow by 63%, and the out-migration flow by 62% from late January to early May in 2020, but the effects varied significantly across provinces. Further, the negative effects of mobility restrictions on province’s outflow migration were greater in provinces where local governments had higher levels of social media involvement, greater public security spending, and longer duration of first-level response to public health emergencies. The finding provides important insights for understanding China’s local governmental responses to mobility restrictions and their effects on the spread of COVID-19.

Migration trends and challenges in the Visegrad countries

The Visegrad region experienced the aging and the decline of its population in the past 30 years, as happened in other Eastern European countries. That development was aggravated by net emigration, the scale of which was overestimated at the time of the political regime changes and underestimated after the EU Eastern expansion. This article presents and analyses the main trends in migration to and from the Visegrad countries, and tries to prove that political considerations and public attitudes often prevented the formulation of appropriate government responses. Research on the motivations for emigration found that economic opportunities prevail as the most decisive factor in individual decisions on migration. Therefore, at the governmental level, the prospect of success to slow down or reverse the flow of net emigration depends on economic convergence between the Visegrad countries and the West.

The Mobility Transition in Health Professional Emigration

Abstract Introduction Human resources for health (HRH) emigration is a topic of great concern to policymakers. In what is called the “mobility transition”, emigration rates for the general population follow an inverted U-shaped curve, with migration rising at a positive relationship to GDP/capita until source countries reach a GDP/capita of $7,000 or more, after which emigration rates fall. It is unclear whether HRH emigration trends follow a similar pattern. Methods We drew OECD-destination physician and nurse emigration data from the OECD.Stat database from 2000-2016 and charted it against real GDP/capita (2011 $ international). We censored data from small island states and country-years with known coups or conflicts. We fit a mixed-effects model testing for a quadratic (U-shaped) relationship between the natural log of real GDP/capita and annual emigration flows, controlled for source country physician/nurse density and year. Results We drew data from 145 sending countries and 28 destination countries over 17 years. Scatter and fitted trend plots showed a regular, not inverted, U-shaped distribution of physician/nurse emigration rates, with low-income countries represented on the left end of the curve (with declining emigration with increasing GDP/capita) and high income, European nations represented on the rightmost end (with rising emigration with increasing GDP/capita) after an inflection point around $7,000 GDP/capita. Model estimates demonstrated a significant positive quadratic relationship between the natural log of GDP/capita and physician (p = 0.005) but not nurse emigration rates when controlled for other variables. Conclusions There appears to be a mobility transition in HRH emigration rates, with an increase in HRH emigration with rising GDP/capita in countries with greater than $7,000 GDP/capita. Of note, some European nations have emigration rates of similar magnitude to low-income African nations, likely due to relatively relaxed EU mobility regulations. Key messages Physician Emigration Trends follow a U-shaped transition with elevated rates in low- and high-income countries and depressed rates in middle income countries. Some European nations have emigration rates similar to low-income African/Asian countries.

The dynamic complexity of Australia’s immigration and emigration flows from 1981 to 2016

The aim of this paper is to examine how flows of immigration and emigration to and from Australia over the past 35 years have evolved across settlement areas. This is achieved by studying the changes to the sources of immigration, measured by country or region of birth, the relative propensities of immigrants to remain in Australia, and the differences exhibited by females and males. The analyses utilise a unique set of data on immigration and emigration flows that have been recently harmonised across various sources of existing data, both over time and across geographic units. Specifically, we show how the patterns have evolved for 18 different immigrant groups and the Australia-born population since 1981. This research provides new insights into the patterns of international migration that are greatly influencing population and ethnic change across Australia. We show how the diversity of immigration has increased between 1981 and 2016 and the significance of China and India as new sources of immigration. The increasing diversity is found across all 47 geographic areas that we examine, albeit with variations in the levels and sources of immigration. We also find that retention of immigrants and ratios of returning Australia-born persons have been declining over time. Finally, we show how most immigrant groups exhibit distinct patterns of immigration and emigration by sex.

A visual tool to explore the composition of international migration flows in the EU countries, 1998–2015

Background: Ternary plots can effectively display compositional data and help to understand its multidimensional patterns. However, they are currently greatly underused in demography. Objective: My goal is to develop an interactive web-based visualization of compositional data on international migration flows in order to compare its developments over time and across countries, and through this example demonstrate the utility of ternary diagrams. Methods: R Shiny framework is used to build a web application. Immigration and emigration flows in the EU Member States from 1998 to 2015 are grouped into three conventional categories (nationals of a reporting country, [other] EU nationals, and non-EU nationals) and presented on ternary diagrams. Results: Compositional data on migration flows can be effectively visualized using ternary plots. An interactive web application has been developed that allows comparative exploratory analysis of immigration and emigration composition and size in the EU countries over time. The impact of the entry of new countries to the EU can be assessed by comparing data referring to the EU composition of 28 Member States with data referring to the EU composition of the reference period. Conclusions: Ternary plots can facilitate compositional analysis of migration flows grouped into three categories. Contribution: I introduce ternary plots for an exploratory analysis of migration composition and provide an online tool to carry out illustrative exploration. Demographic analysis of compositional data can benefit from the wider use of such plots.

The Effects of Permanent Income Tax Cuts on Emigration from Israel

Abstract In this paper, we estimate the effect on emigration of the permanent income tax reductions implemented in Israel during the period 2004–2010. We find that emigration flows from Israel declined, especially for brackets that benefited from a larger tax reduction. We also find that the effect is stronger for younger workers than for older ones, a result consistent with the former group deriving expected tax benefits over a longer duration of time.

The data science tools for research of emigration processes in Ukraine

The process of world globalization, labor, and academic mobility, the visa-free regime with the EU countries have caused a significant revival of migration processes in Ukraine. However, there is still the research gap in the most informative, and, at the same time, accurate method of the assessment and forecasting of the migration flows. Thus, the object of research is migration processes (mostly emphasizing the emigration flows). The motives, causes of emigration processes, and their relationship with the economic state were analyzed. The impact factors of external labor migration on the economy of the host countries were revealed, particularly the negative and positive impacts of emigration on the socio-economic situation in Ukraine and the migration attitude of Ukrainians were assessed.The main result of study is further development of the econometric model for forecasting the number of emigrants from Ukraine to other countries in the nearest future. The model considers the factors of minimum wage lavel in Ukraine, the number of open vacancies in the countries of Eastern Europe, and the level of competition for jobs. According to the results of forecasting based on Maple computer algebra system and Microsoft Power BI analytical platform, by the end of 2019, the number of emigrants from Ukraine supposed to be the largest in the last four years and to reach the estimates in the range from 2,444 to 2,550 million people, which may indicate a new third wave of emigration processes.

Otherwhereness and Gender: Mary O’Malley’s “Asylum Road” and Marga do Val’s “A cidade sen roupa ao sol”

This article aims to delve into the gendered nature of Mary O’Malley’s and Marga do Val’s poetry on displacement and migration, so as to assess the female subject’s questioning of notions such as home, belonging, mobility and otherness. In spite of these writers’ different national and cultural backgrounds, the common history of massive emigration from Galicia and Ireland allows us to hypothesize that their poetry and contemporary reflections on displacement are mutually relevant, as former research on Irish and Galician women’s mobility has indicated (Lorenzo-Modia 2016, Acuña 2014). As each writer is analysed, their most significant and germane propositions are identified. This allows us to conclude that there is a will to connect the theme of migration to the writers’ autobiographical experience of mobility and that O’Malley and do Val are thoroughly aware of the relation between past and present flows of emigration and immigration.

Культурно-просвітницька діяльність лемківської еміграції у висвітленні русинської періодики Другої Речі Посполитої

Formulation of the problem . During the second half of the XIX - first third of the XX century Ukrainians experienced several powerful waves of emigration. At the same time, the emigration flow from the Lemko lands was marked by the greatest intensity due to severe natural economic conditions and the problem of land scarcity. Having faced a new socio-economic and cultural-mental situation, having adapted to completely unusual natural and economic circumstances, the Lemkos did not give up their own national identity. They launched an active cultural and educational work aimed at cultivating a sense of their own national and cultural identity among the settlers. This important and diverse cultural and educational activity of Lemko activists abroad has not become the object of independent scientific reflection, which makes it impossible to create a holistic image of the national service of diaspora Ukrainians. The purpose of the article is to clarify the forms, manifestations and content of the cultural and educational work of the Ruthenian emigration on the basis of the newspapers «Our Lemko» and «Lemko». The main results of the study. Lemko newspapers mainly wrote about numerous American and Canadian communities. The newspapers published independent thematic sections that specifically covered the life of Ruthenians in North America. It is important to note that these columns were edited by the Lemko correspondents in emigration, so that the contributors could recreate a fairly complete picture of the rich cultural and social life of the Lemkos in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto, and others. Along with the articles about the life of Lemkos in the North American countries, quite a few Lemko newspapers wrote about the cultural life of Lemko communities in South American countries, such as Brazil, Peru and Paraguay. The newspapers published columns «To the Lemko Brothers from Uruguay» and «Ukrainians in Argentina» that provide information about the cultural achievements of the Lemkos in these countries. The newspapers published articles about the life of Ruthenians in France, Germany, Britain, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, and Yugoslavia as well. They inform about various cultural and educational events and considerable achievements of Lemko emigration in these countries. Finally, there were a few publications from Manchuria (Green Wedge) that give an idea of the scale of Lemko’s emigration. Conclusions. The study suggests that the cultural and educational movement of Lemko emigrants was extremely active, especially given the modest financial resources of the migrants, who mostly worked in the least prestigious and therefore low-paid jobs. The diversity of Ruthenian cultural life is also striking, it includes various projects such as creation of educational institutions, establishment of museums and Sunday schools, organisation of folklore festivals, publication of periodicals and implementation of translation projects. As a result, this work, mostly conducted in the spirit of unity, became an important and organic component of the cultural life of foreign Ukrainians in the interwar period. This allowed to preserve Lemko cultural diversity and ethnic identity and pass them on to the post-war generation of Ruthenians, who were deprived of the right to live on their native land by totalitarian regimes.

The Emigration Life Cycle: How Development Shapes Emigration from Poor Countries

Many governments seek to reduce emigration from low-income countries by encouraging economic development there. A large literature, however, observes that average emigration rates are higher in countries with sustained increases in GDP per capita than in either chronically poor countries or established rich countries. This suggests an emigration life cycle in which average emigration first rises, then falls with development. But this hypothesis has not been tested with global datasets controlling for unobserved heterogeneity between countries. This paper finds that emigration rises on average as GDP per capita initially rises in poor countries, slowing after roughly US$5,000 at purchasing power parity, and reversing after roughly $10,000. Before this reversal, the within-country elasticity of rising emigration prevalence to rising GDP per capita is +0.35 to all destinations, and +0.74 to rich destinations. This relationship between emigration flows and economic growth is highly robust to country and time effects (fixed or random), specification (linear, log, nonparametric), emigration measure (stock or flow), country subsamples (rich destinations, large origins), and historical period (1960-2019 or 1850-1914). Decomposition of channels for this relationship highlight the joint importance of demographic transition, education investment, and structural change, but question a large role for transportation costs or policy barriers.

Global Trends in the Labor Market and Balance of Losses and Benefits from Labor Migration

The study deals with the analysis of global labor market trends in the European Union countries under the influence of free movement and labor migration within the European Union. Named analyzes include defining trends in the emigration and immigration flows of the workforce among the countries of the European Union that apply the policy of migration and countries that are the source of labor emigration. On this basis, labor migration losses and benefits are assessed and their impact on GDP creation on the labor market, the state budget and other economic and social indicators for countries with a migration policy and for countries with a strong majority of labor migration flows abroad are examined. On this basis, the processes of creating imbalances in the European labor market, which are affected by the absence of balance sheets in the benefits and losses of labor migration for individual countries, are examined. The analyzes and investigations carried out have resulted in the definition and justification of the shift in the balance of losses and benefits of labor migration towards a predominance of benefits for countries with a migration policy and a prevalence of losses for countries with a strong dominance of labor migration flows abroad.

Air Pollution Quotas and the Dynamics of Internal Skilled Migration in Chinese Cities

This paper examines the role of a sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions quota introduced as part of China's 11th Five-Year Plan on internal movements of high-skilled labour across Chinese prefecture cities. Using data on migration flows calculated through changes in Hukou status, this study suggests that a 1,000 tons increase in the SO2 emissions reduction quota leads on average to approximately a 1.5 percentage points increase in high-skilled net outmigration. Compared to the largest prefectures, this regulation effect is twice as large in the smaller regulated prefectures. A possible mechanism could be that the implementation of SO2 quotas decreases relative labour demand in polluting industries in the regulated cities in the short term, thereby resulting in sectoral transitions from dirty-to-clean industries as well as skilled net outmigration flows. However, this net outmigration trend fades in the long term due to stabilisation in air quality. Our findings help contribute to a broader understanding of the effects of environmental policies on internal labour migration and labour force dynamics.

“Foreign Land, I Greet You!”: the Evolution of Russian Emigration in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries

The article examines the evolution of emigration from Russia in the post-Soviet period (from the beginning of the 1990s up to the present time). The multifaceted nature of the phenomenon under study requires an integrated, systemic and interdisciplinary approach with the use of general scientific and special methods. Everett Lee’s pull-push theory was used as a methodological basis for the study. The statistical base of the study was made up of data from Rosstat, foreign statistical agencies, the UN DESA Population Division, and the UNHCR. Relying on quantitative and qualitative approaches to emigration flows from Russia in 1990—2019 the authors identified three periods of emigration that differ in the determinants of emigration, the emigration potential of the population, the main categories of emigrants, the structure of outflows, and the directions of emigration. The analysis of the transformation of “push” factors was an important part of the study. The list of such factors has shown a shift towards reducing the spectrum and increasing the influence of economically determined causes of emigration. The study revealed that the characteristics of each period are inextricably linked to the historical context. The transition from one period to another occurred due to socio-economic and political changes in Russia. To analyze the impact of emigration on the demographic and socio-economic development of Russia, special attention was paid to the qualitative features of migration flows. The results of the study have a practical focus and can be used to improve migration legislation and policy in relation to compatriots living abroad. A necessary condition for implementing an effective migration policy in Russia can be considered its connection with the strategy of sustainable development based on an understanding of the global development goal.

Postmodern social policy in Romania. Between needs and expected changes of the welfare regime

This paper discusses current challenges of the welfare regime in Romania, from the standpoint of postmodern cultural changes that started to affect society. Acording to the main argument, Romania is intertwined with other societies that have already underwent through fundamental changes due to increasing postmodern cultural orientation. Such process comes together with a need for individualization of intervention, due to individualization of needs. Delocalization and denormalization overlap individualization, in a world dominated by mobilities. The paper delves with the basic characteristics of these changes and shows how they already affect or may affect Romania in the near future, in specific domains such as family, education, or housing. International migration is in particular addressed, since Romania is experiencing a large and long-lasting out-migration flow. Changes in technologies are used as material basis for future changes, while cultural preferences and their changes are the red line for all subchapters.