Uses data on border enforcement and macroeconomic indicators from the U.S. and Mexico to estimate a two-country business cycle model of labor migration and remittances. It documents how remittances to Mexico serve an insurance role to smooth consumption across the border. During expansions in the destination economy, immigration increases with the expected stream of future wage gains, but it is dampened by a sunk migration cost. During recessions, established migrants are deterred from returning to their country of origin, which places a downward pressure on the wage of native unskilled workers. The authors quantify the welfare implications of immigration policies for the destination economy. Illustrations. A print on demand pub.

The number of immigrants in the US science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce and among recipients of advanced STEM degrees at US universities has increased in recent decades. In light of the current public debate about immigration, there is a need for evidence on the economic impacts of immigrants on the STEM workforce and on innovation. Using new data and state-of-the-art empirical methods, this volume examines various aspects of the relationships between immigration, innovation, and entrepreneurship, including the effects of changes in the number of immigrants and their skill composition on the rate of innovation; the relationship between high-skilled immigration and entrepreneurship; and the differences between immigrant and native entrepreneurs. It presents new evidence on the postgraduation migration patterns of STEM doctoral recipients, in particular the likelihood these graduates will return to their home country. This volume also examines the role of the US higher education system and of US visa policy in attracting foreign students for graduate study and retaining them after graduation.

This book explores the criminalisation of irregular migration in Europe. In particular, it investigates the meaning, purpose, and consequences of criminalising unauthorised entry and stay. From a theoretical perspective, the book adds to the debate on the persistence of irregular migration, despite governments’ attempts at deterring it, by taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws from international political economy and criminology. Using Italy and France as case studies, and relying on previously unreleased data and interviews, it argues that criminalisation has no effect on migratory flows, and that this is due to factors including the latter’s structural determinants and the likely creation of substitution effects. Furthermore, criminalisation is found to lead to adverse consequences, including by contributing to vicious cycles of irregularity and insecurity.

Political and scientific debates on migration policies have mostly focused on governments' efforts to control or reduce low-skilled, asylum, and irregular migration or to encourage the return migration of these categories. Less research and constructive discourse has been conducted on the role and effectiveness of policies to attract or retain high-skilled workers. An improved understanding of the drivers and dynamics of high-skilled migration is essential for effective policy-making, as most highly developed and emerging economies experience growing shortages of high-skilled labour supply in certain occupations and sectors, and skilled immigration is often viewed as one way of addressing these. Simplistic assumptions that high-skilled migrants are primarily in pursuit of higher wages raise the expectation that policies which open channels for high-skilled immigration are generally successful. Although many countries have introduced policies aimed at attracting and facilitating the recruitment of high-skilled workers, not all recruitment efforts have had the desired effects, and anecdotal evidence on the effectiveness of these programmes is rather mixed. The reason is that the rather narrow focus on migration policy coincides with a lack of systematic and rigorous consideration of other economic, social, and political drivers of migration, which may be equally - or sometimes even more - important than migration policies per se. A better understanding of migration policies, their making, consequences and limitations, requires a systematic knowledge of the broader economic, social and political structures and their interaction in both origin and destination countries. This book enhances this vibrant field of social scientific enquiry by providing a systematic, multidisciplinary, and global analysis of policies driving international high-skilled migration processes in their interaction with other migration drivers at the individual, city, national, and international level.

This edited collection includes (but is not limited to) contributions in the form of chapters from the participants of the Workshop on the Macroeconomics of Migration at the University of Sheffield in June 2018. Migration is one of the most debated issues currently and is a pervasive feature of our economies. While extensive academic work has looked at the microeconomic aspects of migration, an open question is to better understand the links between migration and macroeconomic aggregates, such as per capita GDP. This book explores this overarching question, which has hit the key political and social debates all over Europe. Countries that are traditionally viewed as hosting economies for immigrants, such as for instance the UK and Germany, are concerned by immigration, while sending countries, such as Southern and Eastern European countries, are concerned by emigration. The contributions in this edited collection analyse empirically and theoretically the challenges international economic migration generates both in sending and receiving countries, thus offering a comprehensive approach to the question asked above. The book looks at several important issues in the current debates related to the labour market effects of migration for natives, the bi-directional relation between taxation and migration, migration and the informal economy, migration and business cycle dynamics, and brain waste. This edited collection will be of interest to academics, practitioners and policy makers who wish to take a closer look at the macroeconomic effects of migration and learn more about the current challenges posed by immigration in some countries and emigration in others.