This paper investigates to what extent international migration can be explained by climatic variations. A gravity model of migration augmented with average temperature and precipitation in the ...country of origin is estimated using a panel data set of 142 sending countries for the period 1995 to 2006. We find two primary results. First, temperature is positively correlated with migration. Second, stronger changes in precipitation are also associated with aligned, but small changes in migration. Both effects are robust to various model modifications. Furthermore, we present initial explorations into the channels relating climate changes with migration via agriculture and internal conflict.
This paper aims to examine the residential trajectories of immigrants that intersect rural areas in Sweden. It adds to the literature on new immigration destinations (NIDs) and addresses the need to ...include migration routes intersecting rural areas, immigrants’ secondary migration patterns and temporal dimensions of migration, as well as the multiplicity of migrants in such destinations. We examine whether NIDs have emerged in Sweden and immigrants’ subsequent internal mobility from such areas and its determinants. Employing sequence analysis to full‐population register data, we identify typical migration pathways. According to the results, NIDs are an emerging phenomenon in rural and small‐sized cities in Sweden. We find limited support for the Swedish discourse that the diverse groups of rural migrants leave soon after arrival; also, those leaving are not doing so for labour market–related reasons, nor are they heading for metropolitan areas. We suggest that NIDs offer an important contribution to understanding migration patterns.
Due to international migration, increasing numbers of eligible voters are abroad when their home countries hold elections. Employing the theory of voting costs and benefits and focussing on a case of ...Lithuania, this article presents an unprecedented qualitative enquiry into difficulties behind emigrant (non)voting. Besides real voting costs, interviews with Lithuanian emigrants reveal importance of perceived voting costs when one decides whether to vote—thereby also introducing to the field a novel theoretical framework for examining voting costs and benefits both in and beyond migration context. The paper demonstrates that in addition to implementing adequate provisions for external voting from the home country's side, it is crucial for the authorities to raise awareness of these accommodations—and of the associated conditions, such as registration terms and postal voting deadlines—in order to yield as high as possible participation levels among those emigrants who are willing to vote.
We investigate how potential tax-driven migrations modify the Mirrlees income tax schedule when two countries play Nash. The social objective is the maximin and preferences are quasi-linear in ...consumption. Individuals differ both in skills and migration costs, which are continuously distributed. We derive the optimal marginal income tax rates at the equilibrium, extending the Diamond-Saez formula. We show that the level and the slope of the semielasticity of migration (on which we lack empirical evidence) are crucial to derive the shape of optimal marginal income tax.
Early debates often read globalisation as a powerful tendency destined to make state borders less pertinent. Recent research has challenged this view by suggesting that globalisation and ...(re)bordering frequently advance hand-in-hand, culminating in a condition that might be described as ‘gated globalism’. But somewhat neglected in this recent wave of research is the role that particular international agencies are playing in shaping the norms and forms that pertain to emergent regimes of border control—what we call the international government of borders. Focusing on the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its involvement in the promotion of what it calls better ‘border management’, this paper aims to partially redress this oversight. The IOM is interesting because it illustrates how the control of borders has become constituted as an object of technical expertise and intervention within programmes and schemes of international authority. Two themes are pursued. First, recent work on neoliberal governmentality is useful for illuminating the forms of power and subtle mechanisms of influence that characterise the IOM's attempt to managerialise border policies in countries as different as Armenia, Ethiopia, and Serbia. Second, the international government of borders comprises diverse and heterogeneous practices, ranging from the hosting of training seminars for local security and migration officials to the promotion of schemes to purchase and install cutting-edge surveillance equipment. In such different ways one can observe in very material terms how the project of making borders into a problem of ‘management’ conflicts with a perception of borders as a site of social struggle and politics.
Does exposure to mass migration affect the attitudes and economic behavior of natives in transit countries? In order to answer this question, we use a unique locality-level panel from the 2010 and ...2016 rounds of the Life in Transition Survey and data on the main land routes taken by migrants in 18 European countries during the refugee crisis in 2015. To capture the exogenous variation in natives’ exposure to transit migration, we construct an instrument that is based on each locality’s distance to the optimal routes that minimize traveling time between refugees’ main origins and destinations. We find that the entrepreneurial activity of native population falls considerably in localities that are more exposed to mass transit migration, compared to those located farther away. We explore potential mechanisms and find that exposure to mass transit migration results in lower confidence in government, higher perceived political instability, and less willingness to take risks. We also document an increase in anti-migrant sentiment while attitudes towards other minorities remain unchanged.
•Exposure to Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis resulted in higher anti-migrant sentiment.•Exposure to the refugee crisis reduced confidence in institutions.•Exposure to the refugee crisis also resulted in lower willingness to take risks.•Exposure to the refugee crisis reduced entrepreneurship among native residents.
The study explores the lived experiences of Ethiopian women migrants returned from the Middle East and Gulf countries. We employed the life history method to explore the lived experiences of return ...migrants. Semi-structured questions, specifically focusing on the study participants’ dreams and real experiences covering pre- and post-migration periods, were used to collect data. Findings of the study reveal the following: most of the study participants migrated to host countries after facing a crisis situation. Initially, they aspired to support their parents, secure a better life for their child, and save some money to the betterment of their future life. For most of them, the reality is quite different from their expectations. Living as migrant women, they were exposed to many challenges (e.g., heavy workloads, harassment, and rape) while they found very limited opportunities to fulfill their dreams. Despite this, however, obtaining good opportunities accompanied by migrants’ agency could enable returnees achieve betterment in terms of material possession and social status when they come back home as the story of one of the study participants demonstrated.
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