Suchergebnisse

Even though the existing literature investigating the labor market impact of immigration assumes, implicitly or explicitly, that labor market regulation is exogenous to immigration (in terms of both size and composition), this is not necessarily the case. This paper shows that labor market regulation responds to the composition of the immigrant population. We build a novel workers' protection index based on 36 labor law variables over a sample of 70 developed and developing countries from 1970 to 2010. Exploiting a dynamic panel setting using both internal and external instruments, we find that workers' protection in destination countries is influenced by the degree of workers' protection that immigrants experience in their origin countries and is not affected by immigrant population size. The effects are particularly strong across two dimensions of workers' protection: worker representation laws and employment forms laws. This paper provides suggestive evidence that immigrants' participation in unions and its implications for political actors is one of the potential mechanisms. Finally, calculations based on the estimated coefficients suggest that immigration, on average, contributes to a reduction in workers' protection, particularly in OECD high-income countries.

Even though the existing literature investigating the labor market impact of immigration assumes, implicitly or explicitly, that labor market regulation is exogenous to immigration (in terms of both size and composition), this is not necessarily the case. This paper shows that labor market regulation responds to the composition of the immigrant population. We build a novel workers' protection index based on 36 labor law variables over a sample of 70 developed and developing countries from 1970 to 2010. Exploiting a dynamic panel setting using both internal and external instruments, we find that workers' protection in destination countries is influenced by the degree of workers' protection that immigrants experience in their origin countries and is not affected by immigrant population size. The effects are particularly strong across two dimensions of workers' protection: worker representation laws and employment forms laws. This paper provides suggestive evidence that immigrants' participation in unions and its implications for political actors is one of the potential mechanisms. Finally, calculations based on the estimated coefficients suggest that immigration, on average, contributes to a reduction in workers' protection, particularly in OECD high-income countries.

This thesis investigates the role of international migration on individuals and societies, through its effects on population diversity, on natives' voting preferences and on individual cultural traits and beliefs. The first two chapters explores the effect of immigration-driven diversity on US states and countries economic performance. They show a positive effect on the economy, by increasing the skill and knowledge set of a countries or states. Diversity can enhance economic growth and countries economic complexity when potential complementarities between skills are available. The third and fourth chapters investigate the impact of immigration on Europeans' voting preferences over the 2007-2016. The education-specific effects are highlighted, both on immigrants and voters sides. The presence of highly educated immigrants has pushed European voters towards less nationalistic and more redistributive parties, while lowly educated immigration has the opposite effect. Moreover, we show that the presence of immigrants only influences lowly educated natives voting behavior. The fifth and sixth chapters shed new light on the relation between culture and international migration. First, MENA emigrants are culturally selected: less religious and more gender-egalitarian individuals are more prone to move towards OECD destination countries. Then, I show that having a reliable connection abroad makes natives culturally different. By moving from their origin countries and interacting with their peers at home, migrants influence cultural traits both in the origin and destination countries. ; (ECGE - Sciences économiques et de gestion) -- UCL, 2020

This thesis investigates the role of international migration on individuals and societies, through its effects on population diversity, on natives' voting preferences and on individual cultural traits and beliefs. The first two chapters explores the effect of immigration-driven diversity on US states and countries economic performance. They show a positive effect on the economy, by increasing the skill and knowledge set of a countries or states. Diversity can enhance economic growth and countries economic complexity when potential complementarities between skills are available. The third and fourth chapters investigate the impact of immigration on Europeans' voting preferences over the 2007-2016. The education-specific effects are highlighted, both on immigrants and voters sides. The presence of highly educated immigrants has pushed European voters towards less nationalistic and more redistributive parties, while lowly educated immigration has the opposite effect. Moreover, we show that the presence of immigrants only influences lowly educated natives voting behavior. The fifth and sixth chapters shed new light on the relation between culture and international migration. First, MENA emigrants are culturally selected: less religious and more gender-egalitarian individuals are more prone to move towards OECD destination countries. Then, I show that having a reliable connection abroad makes natives culturally different. By moving from their origin countries and interacting with their peers at home, migrants influence cultural traits both in the origin and destination countries. ; (ECGE - Sciences économiques et de gestion) -- UCL, 2020

This article empirically investigates whether emigrants from MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries self-select along two cultural traits: religiosity and gender-egalitarian attitudes. Using Gallup World Poll data on individual opinions and beliefs and migration aspirations, we find that individuals who intend to emigrate to high-income countries exhibit significantly lower levels of religiosity than the rest of the population. They also share more gender-egalitarian views, although this effect holds only among the young (aged 15 to 30), among single women, and in countries with a Sunni minority. For countries most affected by the Arab Spring, the intensity of cultural selection has decreased since 2011. Still, the aggregate effects of cultural selection should not be overestimated. Self-selection along cultural traits has statistically significant but limited effects on the cultural distance between people (i.e., between migrants and natives at destination or between non-migrants in origin and destination countries). Emigration could even reverse the selection effect and lead to cultural convergence if migrants abroad transfer more progressive norms and beliefs to their home country, a mechanism that deserves more attention in future research.

In this paper we document the impact of immigration at the regional level on Europeans' political preferences as expressed by voting behavior in parliamentary or presidential elections between 2007 and 2016. We combine individual data on party voting with a classification of each party's political agenda on a scale of their "nationalistic" attitudes over 28 elections across 126 parties in 12 countries. To reduce immigrant selection and omitted variable bias, we use immigrant settlements in 2005 and the skill composition of recent immigrant flows as instruments. OLS and IV estimates show that larger inflows of highly educated immigrants were associated with a change in the vote of citizens away from nationalism. However the inflow of less educated immigrants was positively associated with a vote shift towards nationalist positions. These effects were stronger for non-tertiary educated voters and in response to non-European immigrants. We also show that they are consistent with the impact of immigration on individual political preferences, which we estimate using longitudinal data, and on opinions about immigrants. Conversely, immigration did not affect electoral turnout. Simulations based on the estimated coefficients show that immigration policies balancing the number of high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants from outside the EU would be associated with a shift in votes away from nationalist parties in almost all European regions.

In this paper we document the impact of immigration at the regional level on Europeans' political preferences as expressed by voting behavior in parliamentary or presidential elections between 2007 and 2016. We combine individual data on party voting with a classification of each party's political agenda on a scale of their "nationalistic" attitudes over 28 elections across 126 parties in 12 countries. To reduce immigrant selection and omitted variable bias, we use immigrant settlements in 2005 and the skill composition of recent immigrant flows as instruments. OLS and IV estimates show that larger inflows of highly educated immigrants were associated with a change in the vote of citizens away from nationalism. However the inflow of less educated immigrants was positively associated with a vote shift towards nationalist positions. These effects were stronger for non-tertiary educated voters and in response to non-European immigrants. We also show that they are consistent with the impact of immigration on individual political preferences, which we estimate using longitudinal data, and on opinions about immigrants. Conversely, immigration did not affect electoral turnout. Simulations based on the estimated coefficients show that immigration policies balancing the number of high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants from outside the EU would be associated with a shift in votes away from nationalist parties in almost all European regions.

In this paper we document the impact of immigration at the regional level on Europeans' political preferences as expressed by voting behavior in parliamentary or presidential elections between 2007 and 2016. We combine individual data on party voting with a classification of each party's political agenda on a scale of their "nationalistic" attitudes over 28 elections across 126 parties in 12 countries. To reduce immigrant selection and omitted variable bias, we use immigrant settlements in 2005 and the skill composition of recent immigrant flows as instruments. OLS and IV estimates show that larger inflows of highly educated immigrants were associated with a change in the vote of citizens away from nationalism. However the inflow of less educated immigrants was positively associated with a vote shift towards nationalist positions. These effects were stronger for non-tertiary educated voters and in response to non-European immigrants. We also show that they are consistent with the impact of immigration on individual political preferences, which we estimate using longitudinal data, and on opinions about immigrants. Conversely, immigration did not affect electoral turnout. Simulations based on the estimated coefficients show that immigration policies balancing the number of high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants from outside the EU would be associated with a shift in votes away from nationalist parties in almost all European regions.