Immigrant Selection Research Articles

Liberalization of European migration and the immigration of skilled people to Sweden

Migration policies can have a strong impact on the selection of immigrants, who in turn can affect the host country’s innovation development. This paper examines the effects of the liberalization of migration on the skill composition of immigrants from the EU-15 to Sweden after the inception of the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1994. We examine its effect on immigrants’ education levels and probability of becoming an inventor, comparing immigrants from the EU-15 with those from other developed regions in difference-in-differences regressions. The results show that the liberalization of migration had a negative effect on the educational profile of new EU-15 immigrants in the short run, but there is no such effect in the long run. Moreover, the liberalization of migration has no systematic effect on the EU-15 immigrants’ probability of becoming an inventor in neither the short nor the long run. These patterns are consistent with the theoretical implication that reduction in migration costs associated with the EEA mainly stimulated migration from the lower end of the education distribution.

An Analysis of the Patenting Rates of Canada's Ethnic Populations

We estimate patenting rates for Canada’s ethnic populations between 1986 and 2011, using inventor names to identify ethnicity and Census and National Household Survey ancestry data to estimate ethnic populations. The results reveal higher patenting rates for Canada’s ethnic minorities, particularly for Canadians with Korean, Japanese, and Chinese ancestry, and suggest that immigrants accounted for one-third of Canadian patents in recent years, despite making up less than one-quarter of the adult population. Human capital characteristics, in particular the share with a PhD and the shares educated and employed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, account for most of the ethnic minority advantage in patenting. Our results also point to larger patenting contributions by foreign-educated compared with Canadian-educated immigrants, which runs counter to current immigrant selection policies favouring international students.

Years of Since Migration: On the Motivation to Reexamine the Role of Immigrant Selectivity in Black Ethnic Labor Market Disparities

This comment is a response to Model's () critique of my article, “Labor Market Disparities” (Ifatunji ).

Selectivity Is Still in the Running: A Comment on Ifatunji's “Labor Market Disparities”

This comment is in response to Ifatunji's () article, “Labor Market Disparities Between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans: Reexamining the Role of Immigrant Selectivity,” published in this journal.

Foreign Qualification Recognition Regimes for Internationally Trained Professionals: the Case of Pharmacists

The paper aims to bridge the literatures on “immigration policy” and “sociology of professions” by offering an institutionalist perspective that focuses on the nature of foreign qualification recognition (FQR) processes and their impact on internationally trained workers’ access to employment in 11 immigrant-receiving countries—France, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. It analyzes professional regulations and immigrant selection systems and puts forward four FQR regimes—“readily accessible,” “segmented,” “moderately restrictive,” and “highly restrictive.” The central focus of the article is on FQR regimes for pharmacists since professional regulations are not uniform across all professions and jurisdictions. It would thus be more suitable to clarify country clusters for each profession. This conceptual tool, however, can also be utilized to enhance our understanding about other professions.

The Immigrant-Native Educational Achievement Gap in Countries with Selective Immigration Policies

The literature on the immigrant-native educational achievement gap is suggestive of a better performance of immigrant students in countries practicing selective immigration policies. However, the origin of such differences remains unexplained. I use PISA data and an investigative method which considers both important observed characteristics and the role of unobservables in explaining immigrant-native achievement differences in four selective immigration countries. I find that 1st generation immigrant students generally perform as well as native students after accounting for unobservables. In two countries – Australia and Singapore – 2nd generation immigrant students exhibit a consistent performance advantage even after considering unobservables. In explaining the findings, one needs to look at successful immigration policies as screening devices which induce self-selection of immigrants with transferable and adaptive skills. Finally, institutional differences with respect to how inclusionary and conducive to integration of immigrants into the host country policies are, should also be part of the explanation.

Immigrant mothers’ preferences for children’s sexes: A register-based study of fertility behaviour in Norway

Parental sex preferences have been documented in many native populations, but much less evidence is available on immigrants’ preferences for the sexes of their children. Using high-quality longitudinal register data from Norway, a country with a recent immigration history, we estimate hazards regression models of third birth risks by the sex composition of the first two children. A central question in the extant literature is whether the sex preferences of immigrant mothers match those observed in their country of origin, or if cultural adaption to local conditions is more important. Our analyses indicate that the sex preferences of immigrants generally match those previously documented for their native population, especially in the case of son preferences. The pattern of sex preferences is unmodified by the mother’s exposure to the host society. In sum, our evidence generally supports theories emphasizing cultural persistence in preferences, rather than theories of adaption or immigrant selectivity.

Building the country or rescuing the people: Ben-Gurion's attitude towards mass Jewish immigration to Israel in the mid-1950s

ABSTRACTIn mainstream scholarship, David Ben-Gurion is described as one of the main supporters and primary advocates of the policy of encouraging mass Jewish immigration to Israel (aliya) in the 1950s. The Zionist movement had two different motives for supporting aliya: Diaspora Jews’ need for a safe haven (which would require mass aliya), and the need to build a solid and stable Jewish society in mandatory Palestine/Israel (which would require selective aliya).When Ben-Gurion, in the 1940s, came to favour mass aliya, he did so because of the immigrants’ potential contribution to the attainment of statehood and then the independent state.In the first years after independence, when entire communities immigrated to Israel, they included old and infirm people who did not fit the image of the pioneers of pre-state aliya. Nevertheless, for Ben-Gurion, their demographic contribution outweighed the burden of their absorption. By 1952, he had changed his mind and became one of the strongest supporters of selective immigration. He continued to support selectivity even when, in 1955, the safety of Moroccan Jews and their freedom to emigrate was in jeopardy. Ben-Gurion's attitude to aliya from Morocco, in the shadow of the Czech-Egyptian arms deal, reflected his priority – a strong and secure Israel.

The Human Capital Selection of Young Males Seeking Asylum in Germany

This study analyses the selection of recently arrived asylum seekers from Middle Eastern and African countries in Germany. The findings suggest that, on average, asylum seekers have 22 percent more years of schooling—the indicator used for human capital—when compared to same-aged persons from their country of origin. In addition, it is shown that asylum seekers in the sample often accumulated rather low or relatively high levels of schooling compared to same-aged persons in their countries of origin. This phenomenon is even more pronounced for parental education. It is demonstrated that the indicators of individual and parental human capital influence short-run integration outcomes in Germany, while work experience in the home country does not. The paper discusses potential economic explanations for the findings on immigrant selection and integration outcomes.

Immigrant Selectivity and Marriage Immigrant’s Fertility in Korea: Assessing Individual Effect and Regional Effect

Immigrant Selectivity and Marriage Immigrant’s Fertility in Korea: Assessing Individual Effect and Regional Effect

Selective Immigration, Occupational Licensing, and Labour Market Outcomes of Foreign-Trained Migrants

This paper studies occupational licensing as a possible cause of poor labour market outcomes among economic migrants. The analysis uses panel data from Australia, which implements one of the world's largest selective immigration programmes, and applies both cross-sectional and panel estimators. Licensing emerges as acting as an additional selection hurdle, mostly improving wages and reducing over-education and occupational downgrade of those working in licensed jobs. However, not every migrant continues working in a licensed occupation after settlement. In this case there is substantial skill wastage. These results do not change over time, after employers observe migrants' productivity and migrants familiarise with the workings of the labour market, supporting the case for tighter coordination between employment and immigration policies to address the under-use of migrants' human capital.

Attracting and retaining highly educated individuals: Two examples of immigration policies

Ensuring more favourable conditions for immigration and circulation of the most educated structures of the foreign-born population has been rapidly becoming one of the most important goals of immigration policies in the economically developed countries. The availability of human capital is the basic precondition for the continuous economic development of every country. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to examine two successful examples (USA and Canada) of legal solutions to immigration policies for attracting and retaining professionals and highly educated individuals. Their bases are embedded in public policies relating immigrants of the majority of countries, both traditionally immigrant countries and the ones that have turned into immigrant countries. The USA and Canada are selected because they had relatively simple and quick procedures for granting immigrant visas back in the 1990s, which enabled a significant number of our highly educated citizens to immigrate to these two countries after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Immigration to the USA is based on a system of preferences and it relies significantly on the selection of immigrants based on the needs of the labour market. Canada?s example shows how through efficient development and in a relatively short period of time, the immigration system has been perfected by scoring, i.e. assessing the potential of human capital as the basic precondition for selecting potential immigrants. At the same time, the rapid development of the multiculturalism policy has created opportunities for successful long-term integration.

Turning Points in the Historiography of Jewish Immigration from Arab Countries to Israel

Turning Points in the Historiography of Jewish Immigration from Arab Countries to Israel Esther Meir-Glitzenstein (bio) INTRODUCTION The twentieth century was characterized by mass immigration waves and the establishment of numerous nation-states. Israeli history is considered particularly unique for containing a simultaneous convergence of these phenomena. Israel's population doubled following its establishment, as the State absorbed Jews from European and Arab countries by the hundreds of thousands. These immigrants became the human infrastructure upon which the new nation was built, and marked the "genesis" of Israeli society. Given the complexity and significance of this phenomenon, it is no wonder the subject has become a source of both nostalgia and widespread contention. The article concerns Jewish immigration to Israel from Arab countries through the prism of historical research, with specific focus on major turning points within this historiography. It does not aim for an exhaustive representation of research literature on the subject, nor mention studies on the integration of immigrants into Israeli society and the progression of the ethnic conflict in Israel, as each of these topics merits its own discussion. JEWISH IMMIGRATION FROM ARAB COUNTRIES From the declaration of statehood in May of 1948 until the end of 1951, 700,000 new immigrants, half of whom hailed from Europe and half from Arab countries, joined the 650,000 Jews that had been residing in pre-state [End Page 114] Israel. The first to arrive were Holocaust survivors from displaced persons camps in Germany and Cyprus, and Eastern European Jews from Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. The mass immigration from Arab countries began in mid-1949 and included three communities that relocated to Israel almost in their entirety: 31,000 Jews from Libya, 50,000 from Yemen, and 125,000 from Iraq. Additional immigrants arrived from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, India, and elsewhere. Within three years, the Jewish population of Israel doubled. The ethnic composition of the population shifted as well, as immigrants from Muslim counties and their offspring now comprised one third of the Jewish population—an unprecedented phenomenon in global immigration history. From 1952–60, Israel regulated and restricted immigration from Muslim countries with a selective immigration policy based on economic criteria, and sent these immigrants, most of whom were North African, to peripheral Israeli settlements. The selective immigration policy ended in 1961 when, following an agreement between Israel and Morocco, about 100,000 Jews immigrated to the State. From 1952–68 about 600,000 Jews arrived in Israel, three quarters of whom were from Arab countries and the remaining immigrants were largely from Eastern Europe. Today fewer than 30,000 remain in Muslim countries, mostly concentrated in Iran and Turkey. This immigration process thoroughly altered the map of the Jewish-Mizrahi diaspora: its vast majority is now based in Israel, with a small minority in France, Britain, the US, Canada, and others. THE ZIONIST NARRATIVE REGARDING IMMIGRATION FROM ARAB COUNTRIES Discourse on the immigration from Arab countries developed in real time. The Israeli State explained it in apocalyptic terms as the realization of the "End of Days" prophecy regarding Jewish redemption in Zion, the result of 2,000-year-old religious-messianic longing. This explanation was widely accepted within and beyond Israel, being rooted in an ancient redemption myth familiar not only to Jews but to all monotheistic religions. The association of the immigration with a biblical prophecy, and the fact that these Jewish communities dated back to the First Temple period, corroborated Zionist claims regarding Jewish historical continuity and the right of Jews to return to Eretz Israel and establish a sovereign state. However, parallel to this discourse, and to great degree in contrast to it, immigration from Arab countries was also discussed as a reaction to antisemitism and [End Page 115] political persecution, and a solution to socio-economic crises. Jewish life in Arab countries was described as life atop an active volcano, and the massive immigration to Israel was therefore the spontaneous and predictable reaction of Jews who had simply suffered enough. This discourse became a formative part of the Israeli ethos, one that found its way to the center of public school curricula and to every sphere...

Migration and Sexual Health Among Gay Latino Migrants to Canada

This paper enquires into the nexus of migration with sexual health among gay Latino migrants in Canada. Interviews with 25 Spanish-speaking interviewees are examined in light of models developed from studies of Latinos in the United States. Canadian immigration policy appears to result in a somewhat different selection of immigrants compared to the United States. Migrants come from a wide range of national and regional backgrounds intersected by race, generation, and social class that influence their perceptions of and adjustment to Canadian society. Pre-migration HIV knowledge varied strongly by generation with older men recalling public panic concerning HIV and younger men receiving formal education about it. Migration enters into the mix of conditions as kin ties can be less confidently relied on among gay men compared to their heterosexual counterparts and by exacerbating vulnerability among those seeking to develop new social and sexual networks.

Canadian Immigration Policies: Blueprint for Europe?

In Europe discussions about immigration policies have been wide-spread and heated ever since a flood of illegal immigrants have reached Europe’s shores and caused problems with labour markets, housing, fiscal, social and cultural institutions. Some commentators see the solution to some of these problems in the adoption of the Canadian model for the selection of immigrants. This paper contributes to this discussion by a description of current Canadian immigration policies and a discussion of the negative economic and social effects it has produced. It concludes with a presentation of reforms of the existing system that have been proposed and speculates why politicians have been unwilling to adopt any of these reforms.

Constitutional Identity in the Age of Global Migration

Global migration yields political shifts of historical significance, profoundly shaking up world politics as manifested by the European refugee crisis, the Brexit referendum, and throughout the US election. The refugee crisis—which, from a human rights perspective, is first and foremost a crisis of protection—has enhanced the already-existing discussion on justifiable and unjustifiable attempts by nation-states to safeguard their constitutional “essentials” by reinforcing border controls and using selective immigration and citizenship policies. How can liberal states, or a supranational Union formed by such states, welcome immigrants and treat refugees as future denizens without fundamentally changing their constitutional identity, forsaking their liberal tradition, or slipping into populist nationalism? This question is one of the greatest contemporary challenges in constitutional law and theory nowadays.

Canadian economics research on immigration through the lens of theories of justice

AbstractWe assess the current state of knowledge in the economics of immigration and consider how economic theories of knowledge can be used to further the goal of developing a just immigration policy. In the process, we highlight the contributions of economists working in Canada and Canadian economists internationally in furthering our understanding of this important research area. We identify research gaps such as the need for more research on the underlying causes of the poor returns to foreign work experience for immigrants from non‐traditional source countries and the effect of immigrants on stimulating innovation. More research is also needed on the implications of temporary foreign worker (TFW) programs and the growing importance of employers in immigrant selection systems.

Inmigración en el estado postwestfaliano: un enfoque de políticas públicas

El trabajo desde un enfoque socio-politológico sobre el fenómeno migratorio hacia Europa como destino y en un contexto de globalización pone en evidencia las contradicciones de los valores de la Unión Europea. Diversos factores ponen en entredicho el valor de la solidaridad de nuestras democracias europeas.
 El fenómeno migratorio tal y como se presenta es muy complejo y muy permeable a lecturas negativas debido a serio factores que operan como fuertes restricciones. El objetivo es tratar de encontrar soluciones u oportunidades para soslayar estas restricciones, a cuyos propósitos se utiliza una metodología de análisis de políticas y las subsidiarias de las Ciencias de Políticas para la toma de decisiones públicas.
 Los principales resultados es que las carencias demográficas en el medio rural español se presentan como oportunidad para una lectura positiva de una inmigración selectiva, factibilidad que precisa hoy de argumentación por los actores favorables a esta lectura.

Quantifying individual heterogeneity and its influence on life‐history trajectories: different methods for different questions and contexts

Heterogeneity among individuals influences the life‐history trajectories we observe at the population level because viability selection, selective immigration and emigration processes, and ontogeny change the proportion of individuals with specific trait values with increasing age. Here, we review the two main approaches that have been proposed to account for these processes in life‐history trajectories, contrasting how they quantify ontogeny and selection, and proposing ways to overcome some of their limitations. Nearly all existing approaches to model individual heterogeneity assume either a single normal distribution or a priori known groups of individuals. Ontogenetic processes, however, can vary across individuals through variation in life‐history tactics. We show the usefulness of describing ontogenetic processes by modelling trajectories with a mixture model that focuses on heterogeneity in life‐history tactics. Additionally, most methods examine individual heterogeneity in a single trait, ignoring potential correlations among multiple traits caused by latent common sources of individual heterogeneity. We illustrate the value of using a joint modelling approach to assess the presence of a shared latent correlation and its influence on life‐history trajectories. We contrast the strengths and limitations of different methods for different research questions, and we exemplify the differences among methods using empirical data from long‐term studies of ungulates.

An Analysis of the Patenting Rates of Canada's Ethnic Populations

We estimate patenting rates for Canada’s ethnic populations between 1986 and 2011 using inventor names to identify ethnicity and Census and NHS ancestry data to estimate ethnic populations. The results reveal higher patenting rates for Canada’s ethnic minorities, particularly for Canadians with Korean, Japanese, and Chinese ancestry, and suggest that immigrants accounted for one-third of Canadian patents in recent years, despite comprising less than one-quarter of the adult population. Human capital characteristics, in particular the share with a PhD and the shares educated and employed in STEM fields, account for most of the ethnic-minority advantage in patenting. Our results also point to larger patenting contributions by foreign-educated compared to Canadian-educated immigrants, which runs counter to current immigrant selection policies favouring international students.