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1. Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential with Heba Gowayed (Episode 16)

Author:
Heba Gowayed
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR), Rutgers University School of Law
Abstract:
Drawing on a global and comparative ethnography, Professor Heba Gowayed (https://www.hebagowayed.com/) explores how Syrian men and women seeking refuge in a moment of unprecedented global displacement are received by countries of resettlement and asylum—the U.S., Canada, and Germany. It shows that human capital, typically examined as the skills immigrants bring with them that shape their potential, is actually created, transformed, or destroyed by receiving states’ incorporation policies. Since these policies derive from historically informed and unequal approaches to social welfare, refugees’ experiences raise a mirror to how states (re)produce inequality.
Topic:
Immigration, Refugees, Displacement, Syrian War, Resettlement, Asylum, and Social Welfare
Political Geography:
Syria and Global Focus

2. Falsedades y mitos en los estudios sobre migraciones: consecuencias para las Relaciones Internacionales

Author:
José Miguel Bravo and Pablo Rey-García
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
La reproducción de nociones falsas y mitos en los estudios sobre migración disminuye la credibilidad en su conexión con las Relaciones Internacionales y la Seguridad. Para evitar eso, proponemos la utilización del escepticismo creativo como herramienta académica. De esta manera, valoramos el área de estudios sobre migración analizando su desarrollo institucional y la calidad de sus resultados de investigación. Como segundo paso, describimos los seis mitos más persistentes en los estudios sobre migración en las siguientes áreas: en el del Derecho; en el de las Políticas Públicas; en el de la Demografía; en el de la Economía; en el de la Cooperación y el desarrollo y, en el de la Cultura, por la importancia que para estas investigaciones tienen las distintas etnias y religiones. Concluye el artículo con ejemplos de las implicaciones que el uso de mitos tiene para las relaciones internacionales entre Estados miembros de la Unión Europea.
Topic:
International Relations, Migration, Immigration, Myths, and Pseudoscience
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Skilled Immigration, Task Allocation, and the Innovation of Firms

Author:
Anna Maria Mayda, Gianluca Orefice, and Gianluca Santoni
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Immigration continues to be a hotly debated topic in several destination countries. Policy and academic discussions have focused on different types of immigration, depending on the host country. While research is voluminous on the United States and countries with skill‐​points‐​based immigration systems, the discussion in Europe has mostly centered on lesser‐​skilled migrants and political refugees, as they represent the largest proportion of arrivals. However, Europe has been receiving skilled migrants in increasing numbers. For example, in France, the share of college‐​educated immigrants is 23 percent— lower than in the United States, Canada, or the UK—but it increased by 11 percentage points between 1995 and 2010.
Topic:
Immigration, Economy, Innovation, and Skills
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. The Relationship between COVID-19 Entry Restrictions and Immigration

Author:
Youngook Jang and Dong-Hee Joe
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate the relationship between COVID-19 entry restrictions and dependence on immigrants. In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, countries worldwide implemented international travel restrictions to reduce the entry of infected individuals. These measures included entry and exit bans, mandatory quarantine of travelers, and vaccination requirements, significantly altering global mobility patterns. Despite their proven effectiveness, entry restrictions also impose substantial economic costs, particularly evident in the form of reduced immigration and subsequent labor shortages in sectors reliant on immigrant labor. We introduce a theoretical framework to shed light on the factors influencing the determination of entry restrictions, encompassing both health and economic considerations. Empirical analyses reveal that countries heavily dependent on foreign labor are inclined to adopt less stringent border controls, balancing the economic costs associated with reduced immigrant workforce. Moreover, we argue that the strength of entry restrictions is determined by a government’s capacity to manage infection waves through means other than entry bans. Finally, we offer policy implications based on our research, on how to control the spread of infectious diseases while minimizing the costs imposed by reducing immigration and the cost imposed on the immigrants themselves.
Topic:
Immigration, Border Control, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. What Role Can Immigration Play in Addressing Current and Future Labor Shortages?

Author:
Kate Hooper
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Labor shortages are a pressing concern for policymakers and employers alike in many countries around the world. As pandemic-era economic disruptions have collided with longer-running workforce trends, these shortages have become more acute but also hard to predict. Immigration can play an important role in addressing labor shortages—and in some economies and sectors, already does. But there is a robust debate about the extent to which countries should rely on admitting immigrants to address these shortages, and how this should be balanced against other, more far-reaching policy interventions in education and training, labor, and social policy that would boost the labor market participation of resident native- and foreign-born workers. This policy brief examines how immigration can help address labor shortages, the trade-offs that governments must navigate, and current and potential approaches to factoring labor shortages into economic immigration policies. The brief is part of a series of policy analyses and blueprints being generated under MPI’s Global Skills and Talent Initiative, which is exploring the role that immigration can play in addressing workforce needs and skills gaps in rapidly evolving labor markets.
Topic:
Education, Immigration, Employment, Vocational Training, COVID-19, Recruitment, and Labor Market
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. Majority Minority: How do societies respond to great demographic change?

Author:
Justin Gest
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Justin Gest is an Associate Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. He is the author of six books and a variety of peer-reviewed articles on immigration and the politics of demographic change. He co-edits the Oxford University Press book series, “Oxford Studies in Migration and Citizenship” and has provided reporting or commentary for ABC, BBC, CBC, CNN, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, NPR, The New York Times, Politico, Reuters, Vox, and The Washington Post. In 2014 and 2020, Professor Gest received Harvard University’s Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize and George Mason University’s Teaching Excellence Award, respectively each university’s highest award for faculty teaching. In 2013, he received the Star Family Prize for Student Advising, Harvard’s highest award for student advising. In 2007, he co-founded the Migration Studies Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE).
Topic:
Demographics, Immigration, Minorities, and Society
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Populism and the Skill-Content of Globalization: Evidence from the Last 60 Years

Author:
Frédéric Docquier, Lucas Guichard, Stefano Iandolo, Hillel Rapoport, Riccardo Turati, and Gonzague Vannoorenberghe
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
We analyze the long-run evolution of populism and explore the role of globalization in shaping such evolution. We use an imbalanced panel of 628 national elections in 55 countries over 60 years. A rst novelty is our reliance on both standard (e.g., the "volume margin", or vote share of populist parties) and new (e.g., the "mean margin", a continuous vote-weighted average of populism scores of all parties) measures of the extent of populism. We show that levels of populism in the world have strongly fluctuated since the 1960s, peaking after each major economic crisis and reaching an all-time high – especially for right-wing populism in Europe – after the great recession of 2007-10. The second novelty is that when we investigate the "global" determinants of populism, we look at trade and immigration jointly and consider their size as well as their skill-structure. Using OLS, PPML and IV regressions, our results consistently suggest that populism responds to globalization shocks in a way which is closely linked to the skill structure of these shocks. Imports of low-skill labor intensive goods increase both total and right-wing populism at the volume and mean margins, and more so in times of de-industrialization and of internet expansion. Low-skill immigration, on the other hand, tends to induce a transfer of votes from left-wing to right-wing populist parties, apparently without aecting the total. Finally, imports of high-skill labor intensive goods, as well as high-skill immigration, tend to reduce the volume of populism.
Topic:
Globalization, Immigration, Elections, Populism, and Trade
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8. Understanding Differences in Attitudes to Immigration: A Meta-Analysis of Individuallevel Factors

Author:
Lenka Drazanova, Jérôme Gonnot, Tobias Heidland, and Finja Kruger
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
Public attitudes toward immigration have attracted much scholarly interest and extensive empirical research in recent years. Despite a sizeable theoretical and empirical literature, no firm conclusions have been drawn regarding the factors affecting immigration opinion. We address this gap through a formal meta-analysis derived from the literature regarding immigration attitudes from the top journals of several social science disciplines in the years 2009-2019 and based on a population of 1185 estimates derived from 144 unique analyses on individual-level factors affecting attitudes to immigration. The meta-analytical findings show that two individual-level characteristics are most significantly associated with attitudes to immigration - education (positively) and age (negatively). Our results further reveal that the same individual characteristics do not necessarily explain immigration policy attitudes and attitudes towards immigrants' contribution. The findings challenge several conventional micro-level theories of attitudes to immigration. The meta-analysis can inform future research when planning the set of explanatory variables to avoid omitting key determinants.
Topic:
Migration, Immigration, and Public Opinion
Political Geography:
Global Focus

9. Digital Health Credentials and COVID-19: Can Vaccine and Testing Requirements Restart Global Mobility?

Author:
Lawrence Huang
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, rising vaccination levels and widespread testing in many countries are giving governments and the public increasing confidence in international travel. A central part of efforts to restart mobility are digital health credentials, which verify a person’s vaccination, testing, and/or recovery status. These credentials help to minimize the risk of travelers carrying the virus, and unlike paper credentials that must be manually inspected in airports and at borders, digital credentials can be automatically verified. But even as digital health credentials are becoming increasingly common, gaps in international coordination and technical integration issues between different credential systems remain. As a result, migrants and travelers moving between—and at times within—countries must navigate a complex maze of digital systems. This report examines the implications of digital health credentials for international travel and for immigrants’ and travelers’ access to domestic services and venues that also use such credentials. It also explores the implications for specific groups: tourists and business travelers, students, labor migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, and unauthorized migrants. Finally, it offers policy recommendations to facilitate mobility and minimize risks for people on the move.
Topic:
Health, Immigration, Border Control, Employment, Mobility, Vaccine, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10. Public Views of Migration in MENA

Author:
Mohamed Abufalgha
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Arab Barometer
Abstract:
Across the Middle East and North Africa, sizable proportions of citizens are considering leaving their home countries. Desire to emigrate is high across the region and has largely remained at the pre-COVID19 levels. In most countries surveyed, at least a fifth of the population reports considering emigrating. The percentage is highest in Jordan where nearly half (48 percent) say they want to leave the kingdom, and lowest in Egypt where only 13 percent share this desire. Those who want to emigrate are more likely to be male, young, well-educated segments of the population, respectively. Youth across the region are significantly more likely to say they consider leaving their countries compared to their older counterparts. The gap between those ages 18-29 and those who are 30 years or older ranges from 32 points in Lebanon to six points in Mauritania. Similarly, those with college degrees or higher are more likely to want to emigrate compared to those with only a secondary education or less in all countries surveyed. The gap between the two groups is significant in several countries, especially in Sudan where it reaches the 26-point mark. Furthermore, men are more eager to leave than women in all countries except Lebanon, where both are equally interested in emigrating. People across MENA name a number of reasons for wanting to emigrate. The most commonly cited reason is for economic issues. The majority of potential migrants in all countries surveyed mention economic factors as the primary reason why they want to leave. These levels range from virtually all potential migrants in Egypt (97 percent) and Jordan (93 percent) to more than half in Libya (53 percent). While other reasons, including security factors, political reasons, and educational opportunities, are mentioned by minorities across the region; these reasons seem to correlate with each country’s political atmosphere, rather than being recurring themes across MENA. Potential migrants in MENA do not seem to agree on a destination. In no country is there a majority choosing one country as a preferred destination. Several factors contribute to people’s preferences. These factors include historical trends of migration, language, proximity, and perceived opportunities. While Jordanians, Lebanese, and Mauritanians prefer a move to North America, Egyptians and Sudanese prefer a Gulf country. North Africans tend to choose France or another European country as their preferred destinations.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Migration, and Immigration
Political Geography:
Global Focus