Migration Quotas Research Articles

Quid pro quota: a cross-country study on the impacts of immigration quotas on early-stage entrepreneurship

AbstractWe study the impacts of immigration quotas and immigrant eligibility restrictions on destination countries’ early-stage entrepreneurial activity. Taking advantage of cross-country variation in immigration quotas and eligibility restrictions, we find that increases in the strictness of labor migration quotas and eligibility requirements are associated with significantly less early-stage entrepreneurship in the short run. Further, we find two important sources of heterogeneity that impact our results. First, these results are driven by a connection between quotas and early-stage necessity-driven entrepreneurship—our results lose significance when adding opportunity-driven entrepreneurship to the analysis. Second, the magnitude of the relationship between quotas and early-stage entrepreneurial activity is lower when analyzing female entrepreneurship. Overall, our results suggest that immigrants clearly influence entrepreneurship positively, but the overall welfare effects on the host country of marginal increases in entrepreneurial activity associated with a relaxation of labor market restrictions are more nuanced. At the same time, our results also suggest room for immigration policy to improve the welfare of immigrants and natives. Importantly, our estimates likely act as a lower bound given that we are not able to measure impacts in the long run. Because immigrants’ participation in the labor market is often delayed by labor market restrictions after entry, estimates of the impact of quotas and other restrictions that limit entry into the host country would likely yield more negative results given a longer time horizon.

Foreign Healthcare Workers and COVID-19 in Europe: The Paradox of Unemployed Skilled Labour

This report provides an overview of the skilled migrant health workforce and their contribution to health systems in European countries, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Migrant workers at all skill levels have worked in key areas during the pandemic. Skilled migrant health workers, particularly medical practitioners and nurses, make up a significant portion of the frontline health workforce and are essential to keeping health systems in developed countries running. While skilled migrants often face fewer hard barriers (entry control policies: visa policy, work permit schemes, labour migration quotas), this workforce faces soft barriers (e.g., lack of recognition of foreign educational credentials and other restrictive or discriminatory measures) in accessing the host nation’s labour market, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article explores this phenomenon, focusing on Italy’s health sector and foreign health professionals’ dynamics. The report concludes by proffering some practical policy recommendations to promote the inclusion of migrant health professionals in the health and social care systems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From aspiring saint to disillusioned rebel. Explaining change in the Polish narrative of European integration

This article conceptually draws on Bourdieu’s field theory and Goffman’s stigma theory to explain the evolution of Polish government’s official narrative on European integration. Narrative production by Polish authorities reveals a marked shift in strategy adopted to deal with the stigma (real or imagined) that structures Poland’s position in the EU field of power: from adaptive (corrective) to contesting strategy where stigma is embraced and transformed into a virtue. Empirically, this shift is illustrated with 3 examples of narrative production under crisis: 1) euro-zone crisis (Poland adapts to the dominant EU narrative and promotes its own austerity experience, while allying itself with the northern “saints” against the southern “sinners”); 2) migration crisis (Poland moves from adaptation to contestation, while narrating the “lack of solidarity” stigma as the responsible “normal”); 3) rule of law crisis (Poland consolidates its contestation strategy, while framing the dispute as a counter-measure from undemocratic EU centre to discipline “real” democrats in the periphery). Thus the narrative moves from contestation of a particular policy solution (migration quotas) to undermining normative bases of the European integration process.

Hungarian referendum on distribution of migration quotas. What about the European solidarity?

In recent years national referenda have become popular instruments for making decisions on very problematic European issues (Grexit, Brexit, migration crisis). The Hungarian vote of 2016 on refugee quotas distribution seems to be one of them. Next to its importance in the Euopean context, the 2016 referendum was devoted to a very difficult and socially important problem. It is argued that this national referendum was a maneuver of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban against the European Union, its solidarity and common interests. Having in mind that the migration crises should be treated as a joint challenge for the entire EU and all its member states should take a part of responsibility in seeking the proper solutions satisfying all MS – the main objective of this paper was to answer the question about the course and consequences of Hungarian referendum of 2016 for realization of the solidarity principle. The article aimed also at finding answers to the questions about the role of referendum on problematic/controversial issues in Hungary and about the factors impacting the voters decision.

MIGRATION, THE PERCEPTION OF SECURITY RISKS AND MEDIA INTERPRETATION FRAMEWORKS IN CROATIA AND HUNGARY

Although they are the most vulnerable group of people, immigrants are often perceived as a threat, with immigration and terrorism issues put under a common denominator. Political discourse and mass media are contributing factors, which, when framing migrants as a threat and emphasizing the connection with terrorism in their reporting, can affect the perception of public safety risks. Framing migrants as a terrorist risk has a negative impact on migration-related policies, changing focus from humanitarian towards security issues. The European Union’s migration policy is humanitarian, but it is reconsidered by individual member states defining migration as a risk. In these countries, measures to prevent terrorism include the acceptance of restrictive immigration policies, e.g. in Hungary. In the process of securitization, migrants are interpreted as a risk and threat to the survival of traditional identity values. This problem is analysed through examples of Hungary, a country with an exceptionally restrictive migration policy, and neighbouring Croatia which was perceived as a transitional country for migrants and refugees on their way West during the European migration crisis in 2015 and 2016, much like Hungary. For this purpose, several components are considered: the results of longitudinal Eurobarometer surveys that can determine public opinion changes in EU member states, the trends and results of the Hungarian referendum on migration quotas from October 2016, and the selected research and analysis of trends and media coverage of this issue in media. It is an attempt to determine whether and to what extent the public, political authorities and media in Croatia and Hungary referred to “unintentional” or „forced migrants“ as the negative non- European Other, during the European migration crisis.

Russian-Speaking Diaspora In Finland As A Public Diplomacy Tool

The article deals with complex studies of the Finnish case particularly migrants’ inclusion analysis into local cultural and political environments (as conditions to cultural and political environment stability) as well as public diplomacy impact evaluation of an important «soft power» tool where migrants role is rather high. Authors scrutinize migrants’ interaction with the environment, outline cause-and-effect links of this interaction, and unveil external factors that influence the respondents’ political behavior. The research method is based upon interviews, which result in respondents’ typology development, political information channels were defined, and the influence of education and social inclusion upon political communication was characterized. This method helps to perceive migrants’ integration policy at example of Finland, the fourth most attractive country in the world in accordance with the Migrant Integration Policy Index. Finnish experience could be highly useful for Russia in terms of both national migration policy development. The resulting characteristics of migrants’ political communication might be of high interest in terms of migration policy regulation and understanding the issue of migration quotas, help to predict structural changes in society, also to provide the basis for making decisions on the effective use of public diplomacy tools.

Aggregated Agent-Based Simulation Model of Migration Flows of the European Union Countries

This article presents the aggregated agent-based simulation model of migration flows of the European Union (EU) countries, implemented in the AnyLogic system, created in the form of an extended “gravity model”, according to which individual decisions by agent-migrants are based on the integrated assessment of socio-economic, geographical and other differentiation of the respective countries. At the same time, some factors ‘attract’ migrants, while others ‘repel’. A distinctive feature of the model is the differentiation of migration flows by the categories of migrants with the release of various influencing factors that reflect the individual preferences of agent-migrants regarding to the agents-countries (EU members). At the same time, there are multiple control parameters that affect the distribution of migration flows between the EU countries, in particular, migration quotas, unemployment benefits, minimum wages, etc. The most important bicriterial optimization task of EU countries for choosing rational migration and economic policies based on maximizing integral GDP and minimizing the total number of migrants has been formulated. The issue is aimed to control parameters that affect the structure of migration flows and labor resources, as well as their maintenance costs. For the first time, an expanded gravitational model has been proposed and studied, describing dynamic migration flows with the release of multiple factors that differentiate the attractiveness of EU countries for various groups of migrants, for example, internal migrants, economic migrants, refugees, etc.

Birds of passage: Return migration, self-selection and immigration quotas

A key feature of migration in the late 19th and early 20th century is that many migrants returned to Europe after a few years in the United States. A common view is that most temporary migrants planned, upon entry, to eventually return home, yet there is little direct evidence to support this claim. I collect the first dataset on migrants' intentions to stay or return home from Ellis Island arrival records between 1917 and 1924. I find that fewer migrants planned to return home than actually did; many migrants, especially from Eastern and Southern Europe, left the United States unexpectedly. The high rate of unplanned returns implies that the first few years after arrival were more difficult than expected. However, this high rate of unexpected returns lowered after the 1920s migration quotas, suggesting improved outcomes for those lucky enough to enter.

On the formation of international migration policies when no country has an exclusive policy-setting say

This paper identifies the migration policies that emerge when both the sending country and the receiving country wield power to set migration quotas, when controlling migration is costly, and when the decision of how much human capital to acquire depends, among other things, on the migration policies. The paper analyzes the endogenous formation of bilateral agreements in the shape of transfers to support migration controls, and in the shape of joint arrangements regarding the migration policy and the cost-sharing of its implementation. The paper shows that in equilibrium both the sending country and the receiving country can participate in setting the migration policy, that bilateral agreements can arise as a welfare-improving mechanism, and that the sending country can gain from migration even when it does not set its preferred policy.

COORDINATION FAILURES IN NETWORK MIGRATION*

Previous immigration facilitates future immigration, a phenomenon called network migration. While well recognized, previous research has mainly focused on the implications of immigrant networks on future migrants. In contrast, this paper derives a simple model from the perspective of the incumbent immigrant population by introducing sub‐networks and argues that the incumbent migrants fail to achieve a Pareto optimal network size due to differences in inter‐ and intra‐migrant group externalities and subsequently coordination failures. In short, it stresses the active role incumbents take in the provision of network effects and provides theoretical evidence that self‐perpetuating and sustained immigration is not at odds with rational acting individuals. It also shows that optimally chosen migration quotas may appeal to incumbent migration cohorts and provides an alternative explanation for inter‐ and intra‐migrant group tensions.