Poster session on International migration (1)

This paper reviews the results of Russia's vital records research. High attention in the work is paid to the quality and structure of vital statistics data (registration of births and deaths files) in terms of its applicability for the migrants input to birth and death rates estimation in Russian regions and in the country on the whole. The paper also contains pilot estimation results of the indicated migrants input to the population reproduction indices, namely, birth and death rates by age and total fertility rate in 10 regions of Russia in year 2009.

Developed countries compete to attract and retain high-skilled immigrants. Canada implemented in 1967 a points system to select immigrants in terms of their skills, experience and demographic characteristics. Multiculturalism as a policy aims at integrating immigrants into Canadian society. The presence of dissatisfaction among the foreign-born challenges these policies and even more so if those dissatisfied are the high-skilled. How immigrants assess their experience in Canada will impact emigration, settlement patterns, future immigration, and ultimately, social cohesion and national identity. Who are those dissatisfied after six months and after for years? Is dissatisfaction the result of unrealistic expectations of the immigration experience? How do indicators of integration relate to changes in satisfaction? How do these relationships differ by motivations for migration and entry status? The paper studies changes on immigrant self-rated satisfaction with the experience in the first four years upon arrival using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada. The descriptive analysis of differences in satisfaction by type of expectations, time spent and entry status is followed by Logistic Fixed Effects Models studying the relationship of changes in satisfaction with economic, social and institutional integration.

Raw income differentials between the two countries have gone from 2.9 times larger in the US than in Mexico during the 1970s to 3.2 times larger in 2010. Along with the widening of the regional economic and wage gap, the international migration from Mexico to US has increased from less than 120 thousand migrants a year in 1970 to more than half million migrants a year in 2010. Using United States and Mexican micro-data on socioeconomic characteristics of workers living in communities close to the border, this paper compares wages of identical individuals both sides of the border after controlling for unobserved differences between the productivity of migrants and non-migrants as well as explain the Mexican social and economic policies to indirect control of emigration in the country. We found that domestic-born, domestic-educated workers in the US side gain around 3.4 times the wage of an identical domestic-born, domestic-educated worker in Mexico. However, Mexican-born-educated legal workers in the US side of the border gain 2.8 times the wage of an identical worker in the Mexican side. Illegal workers in the US side of the border gain only 1.8 times more than their Mexican counterparts, which may not represent the larger benefit of moving, as their wages increase 1.6 times just for moving close to Mexican side of the border.

Using high-quality administrative register data from Norway (N=1,021,491) and Sweden (N=1,923,870), we study the marriage behavior of all migrant- and non-migrant-background individuals born between 1972 and 1989, who were either born in Norway or Sweden or who immigrated prior to age 18 (generation 1.5). The timing of first marriage, relative to patterns of assortative mating, may be informative as to the socio-cultural distance between majority and migrant-background subpopulations. We analyze the differential hazards of marrying an individual of majority- or migrant-background within a competing risk framework. We further differentiate individuals by migrant generation, number of foreign-born parents, and (parental) region of origin. We demonstrate how the individual characteristics of migrant-background individuals (i.e., second generation status and having one majority parent) and the characteristics of one’s partnership (i.e., exogamy) are associated with marital timing patterns that are more similar to the majority populations in both Norway and Sweden. Results provide deeper insight into the family dynamics of migrants and their descendants.

This paper studies the role of U.S. migration on the intergenerational educational mobility of non-migrant youth in Mexico by using data from the 10% sample of the 2000 Mexican Census to compare the educational attainment of youth ages 13 to 20 to that of their parents. Classic models of status attainment suggest that family background is a strong determinant of children educational outcomes. Household migration is expected to positively influence education through its impact on socioeconomic status. However, living in a place with high migration prevalence has been associated with schooling discontinuation and an orientation towards U.S. labor markets. Results show that the positive effects of migration in the household depend on the socioeconomic conditions of the community. In less developed areas, migration in household has a stronger impact on intergenerational educational mobility. In contrast, higher migration prevalence in the community is associated with lower probabilities of intergenerational educational mobility. Additional work explores the stronger impact of migration in poor areas by conducting split sample analyses by level of community development to better understand the interplay between community characteristics and migration influences on educational mobility.

There are a few empirical studies that look at the relative economic impacts of circular and permanent migration of the low-skilled workers. Data gathered from 858 Indonesian low skilled migrant workers in Peninsular Malaysia with varying legal statuses (documented, undocumented and permanent residents) and mobility intentions (circular, permanent or undecided) were used to analyse the impacts.
All circular migrants remitted more and used their remittances for more than just consumption related activities than permanent migrants. As suggested by Glytsos (1997, p. 421), circular migrants, by sending a larger proportion of their wages, indicated a preference for consumption at the home country. Their remittances are used for activities with higher multiplying effects with investment in education of children and savings, while the permanent migrants’ smaller remittances often supported the extended family members left behind with day-to-day expenses. The undecided migrants’ use of remittances was similar to that of circular migrants.
It is evident from the study that the positive economic benefits for Indonesia, Malaysia and the individual migrant continue to facilitate the migration flow.

In this paper we examine age-specific net emigration patterns during the so called “age of mass migration” between 1850 and the beginning of World War 1 for six European countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway). Earlier studies on causes of this population movement phenomena only analyzed crude migration flows, since age-specific data was simply not available. Using residual methods like the average survival ratio method, it is possible to estimate age-specific profiles and to use them for further investigations. By doing so, we observe that age-specific migration patterns varied considerably during the age of mass migration. We show with decomposition methods that indirect demographic effects, attributable to changes in the age structure of the population (e.g. increases of the share of the prime migration age groups), are negligible. However, direct demographic effects, such as relative cohort size, on age-specific migration propensities are relevant. These can be demonstrated with correlations and regression analysis that also take into account other non-demographic determinants.

This paper describes changes in the stock and demographic composition of Peruvian migrants, firstly, it explores the migration process using secondary sources: the 2001 national census and the provincial census 2008, which is observed alteration suffered by residential settlement site, through the comparison of the distribution, district level, in the two dates and arises-hypothetically-that the observed changes are beyond the economic conditions areas of origin and destination, to link the development of migration networks in Cordoba, both family support and employment is also observed that the presence of Peruvians grew sharply in the last decade. However, there are some striking results, such as changes in terms of demographics, education, and informal employment.
Secondly, the analysis focuses on exploratory interviews applied in 2008 and a survey relieved in late 2009 to members of the Peruvian community in neighborhoods with the highest concentration. Changes observed in their demographic composition, the importance of networks of linkages to sustain the process, its relation to the social, economic and political relations between the two countries and their future continuity. At the individual level, is clearly on the rise accompanying the change in the economic integration of migrants.

This work aims to guide discussions on the return of highly qualified people in Latin America, with evidence to identify potential opportunities offered by the current crisis. Among the consequences of the crisis on skilled migration has dominated the view of host countries about making and maintaining protectionist quotas to favor the recovery of economic activity and innovation. We discuss the importance of skilled migration for development in Latin America, raising the issue of the return, a process while an alternative policy. Conditions are examined of return in the U.S. and Spain and, based on census information in the countries of Latin America, quantifies and describes the profile of highly qualified people who have returned in recent years. We analyze the return policy debate in Latin America, in particular as it relates to this workforce, and it uses census microdata from 7 countries conducted their census in the 2010 round. The findings identify the size and characteristics of the return qualified and return policy debate. Proposals are made to contribute to the research and design of appropriate policies.

African diasporas within the sub-region of West Africa, are often overlooked actors in the area of remittances, development and integration. This issue becomes manifest as very little attention is paid to diasporas in the policy making and expanding literature on African Migration. Attention has always been paid to the African diasporas in the Western countries of the US and Europe. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the concept of “diaspora” has acquired a new and challenging position in public discourse as well as in Social and Cultural Sciences, where its range of meaning has been extended from traumatic histories of Jewish, Armenian or Black communities to various groups of migrant origin and “new diasporas”. There are increasingly new transnational people with the status of diasporas in West Africa. In the context of global cultural politics, the very concept of diaspora seems to have become a symbolic resource. Drawing on the data collected from the Nigerian and Ghanaian diasporas in Ghana and Nigeria respectively, this paper discuses its findings from their social, economic and cultural involvements.. The effects of these contributions to bilateral and multilateral relations in West Africa , thereby enhancing the sub-regional integration will be discussed.

Keywords: Migration, Diaspora, Remittances