Moving for Prosperity


Book Description

Migration presents a stark policy dilemma. Research repeatedly confirms that migrants, their families back home, and the countries that welcome them experience large economic and social gains. Easing immigration restrictions is one of the most effective tools for ending poverty and sharing prosperity across the globe. Yet, we see widespread opposition in destination countries, where migrants are depicted as the primary cause of many of their economic problems, from high unemployment to declining social services. Moving for Prosperity: Global Migration and Labor Markets addresses this dilemma. In addition to providing comprehensive data and empirical analysis of migration patterns and their impact, the report argues for a series of policies that work with, rather than against, labor market forces. Policy makers should aim to ease short-run dislocations and adjustment costs so that the substantial long-term benefits are shared more evenly. Only then can we avoid draconian migration restrictions that will hurt everybody. Moving for Prosperity aims to inform and stimulate policy debate, facilitate further research, and identify prominent knowledge gaps. It demonstrates why existing income gaps, demographic differences, and rapidly declining transportation costs mean that global mobility will continue to be a key feature of our lives for generations to come. Its audience includes anyone interested in one of the most controversial policy debates of our time.




Matching Economic Migration with Labour Market Needs


Book Description

This publication gathers the papers presented at the “OECD-EU dialogue on mobility and international migration: matching economic migration with labour market needs” (Brussels, 24-25 February 2014), a conference jointly organised by the European Commission and the OECD.




How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries' Economies


Book Description

How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries' Economies is the result of a project carried out by the OECD Development Centre and the International Labour Organization, with support from the European Union. The report covers the ten project partner countries.




A Meta-Analytic Assessment of the Effect of Immigration on Wages


Book Description

In our increasingly interconnected and open world, international migration is becoming an important socio-economic phenomenon for many countries. Since the early 1980s, many studies have been undertaken of the impact of immigration on host labour markets. Borjas (2003) noted that the estimated effect of immigration on the wage of native workers varies widely from study to study and sometimes even within the same study. In addition, these effects cluster around zero. Such a small effect is a rather surprising outcome, given that in a closed competitive labour market an increase in labour supply may be expected to exert a downward pressure on wages. We revisit this issue by applying meta-analytic techniques to a sample of eighteen papers, which altogether generated 348 estimates of the percentage change in the wage of a native worker with respect to a one percentage point increase in the ratio of immigrants over native workers. While many studies in our sample employ US data, estimates are also obtained from Germany, The Netherlands, France, Norway, Austria, Israel and Australia. Our analysis shows that results vary across countries and are inter alia related to the type of modelling approach. Technical issues such as publication bias and quality of the estimates are addressed as well. A negative but small effect of immigration on wages of native groups with similar skills appears rather robust.




Migration and Human Capital


Book Description

Throughout the world, migration is an increasingly important and diverse component of population change, both at national and sub-national levels. Migration impacts on the distribution of knowledge and generates externalities and spillover effects. This book focuses on recent models and methods for analysing and forecasting migration, as well as on the basic trends, driving factors and institutional settings behind migration processes. Migration and Human Capital also looks at many current policy issues regarding migration, such as the creative class in metropolitan areas, the brain drain, regional diversity, population ageing, illegal immigration, ethnic networks and immigrant assimilation. With specific reference to Europe and North America, the book reviews and applies models of internal migration; analyses the spatial concentration of human capital; considers migration in a family context; and addresses the political economy of international migration. This book will be invaluable for researchers and policy makers in the fields of internal and international migration. It provides up-to-date readings for advanced courses that focus on migration and population change in a global context.




Globalization in Historical Perspective


Book Description

As awareness of the process of globalization grows and the study of its effects becomes increasingly important to governments and businesses (as well as to a sizable opposition), the need for historical understanding also increases. Despite the importance of the topic, few attempts have been made to present a long-term economic analysis of the phenomenon, one that frames the issue by examining its place in the long history of international integration. This volume collects eleven papers doing exactly that and more. The first group of essays explores how the process of globalization can be measured in terms of the long-term integration of different markets-from the markets for goods and commodities to those for labor and capital, and from the sixteenth century to the present. The second set of contributions places this knowledge in a wider context, examining some of the trends and questions that have emerged as markets converge and diverge: the roles of technology and geography are both considered, along with the controversial issues of globalization's effects on inequality and social justice and the roles of political institutions in responding to them. The final group of essays addresses the international financial systems that play such a large part in guiding the process of globalization, considering the influence of exchange rate regimes, financial development, financial crises, and the architecture of the international financial system itself. This volume reveals a much larger picture of the process of globalization, one that stretches from the establishment of a global economic system during the nineteenth century through the disruptions of two world wars and the Great Depression into the present day. The keen analysis, insight, and wisdom in this volume will have something to offer a wide range of readers interested in this important issue.




Immigrants in Regional Labour Markets of Host Nations


Book Description

This book is the first to present a detailed analysis of economic integration of immigrants in smaller areas of their host nations. It uses Atlantic Canada as a case in point and uses unpublished data based on several databases of Statistics Canada and Citizenship and Immigration, Canada. It identifies best policy practices that can also be used in other countries to address demographic challenges similar to those facing Canada, for example population ageing and youth out-migration from smaller regions to larger regions, through immigration. Economic integration of immigrants in Atlantic Canada is faster and better than it is nationally. An overarching result is that an analysis of regional data can lead to very different policy conclusions than the analysis of national data, which means that it can be risky to devise immigration policy based only on national data. A clear message is that economic benefits from immigration can be enhanced by facilitating a broader geographic distribution of immigrants, rather than maintaining their concentration in a few larger urban regions. A must read for immigration and population policy makers, immigrant settlement agencies and academic researchers.




The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration


Book Description

The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration finds that the long-term impact of immigration on the wages and employment of native-born workers overall is very small, and that any negative impacts are most likely to be found for prior immigrants or native-born high school dropouts. First-generation immigrants are more costly to governments than are the native-born, but the second generation are among the strongest fiscal and economic contributors in the U.S. This report concludes that immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the U.S. More than 40 million people living in the United States were born in other countries, and almost an equal number have at least one foreign-born parent. Together, the first generation (foreign-born) and second generation (children of the foreign-born) comprise almost one in four Americans. It comes as little surprise, then, that many U.S. residents view immigration as a major policy issue facing the nation. Not only does immigration affect the environment in which everyone lives, learns, and works, but it also interacts with nearly every policy area of concern, from jobs and the economy, education, and health care, to federal, state, and local government budgets. The changing patterns of immigration and the evolving consequences for American society, institutions, and the economy continue to fuel public policy debate that plays out at the national, state, and local levels. The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration assesses the impact of dynamic immigration processes on economic and fiscal outcomes for the United States, a major destination of world population movements. This report will be a fundamental resource for policy makers and law makers at the federal, state, and local levels but extends to the general public, nongovernmental organizations, the business community, educational institutions, and the research community.




Settling In 2018 Indicators of Immigrant Integration


Book Description

This joint publication by the OECD and the European Commission presents a comprehensive international comparison across all EU, OECD and G20 countries of the integration outcomes for immigrants and their children, through 25 indicators organised around three areas: labour market and skills ...