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391. Data Concentration and Competition in Digital Platforms

Author:
Hyunsoo Kim
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
Policy discussions in major countries regarding access to data as a means of promoting competition in the digital platform market are taking place within the framework of existing legislation. The existing legal framework determines whether access to data is necessary based on whether the data is essential for competition in the relevant market and whether it can only be obtained from the dominant platform. In competition law, discussions about whether other companies can access a dominant firm’s resources have traditionally taken place under the so-called essential facilities doctrine. Whether data is essential for competition in a given market cannot be determined uniformly. However, existing literature suggests that narrowly defined essential data does not exist in many markets, and it is also difficult to find such data in markets related to large digital platform companies like Google or Amazon. This is because businesses can be established and operated in search engines or online marketplaces without having extensive user data. From this perspective, the role of competition law in ensuring access to data under the existing legal framework is inherently limited. These limitations arise not only in relation to the essential facilities doctrine but also in the process of applying competition policy. Competition policy typically takes a long time to implement, while the rapidly changing business environment of the digital platform market requires companies to quickly identify business opportunities in order to enter the market. Even if it is proven that a dominant company has used its data in an anticompetitive manner, it is extremely difficult to impose appropriate remedies that could restore the market to its previous competitive state. Additionally, designing complex remedies and continuously monitoring compliance with competition policy is not easy, which is why there are ongoing discussions about the need for ex ante regulation. However, ex ante regulation also has its own costs and drawbacks, so the practical benefits of implementing such regulations must be carefully evaluated.
Topic:
Economics, Business, Data, and Digital Platforms
Political Geography:
Global Focus

392. Net International Investment Position Surplus: A Key to Reconciling Financial Stability and Internationalization

Author:
Young Sik Jeong and Yena Song
Publication Date:
08-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
This study examines the influence of net international investment position (IIP) on financial stability and financial internationalization. We find a strong correlation between creditor status (IIP surplus) and resilience to financial crises. Net creditor countries appear to act as buffers, with foreign assets returning to the home country during potential crises, thus preventing deterioration in external sector soundness. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that external financial assets positively affect the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) of financial service. Specifically, the positive relationship between external financial assets and financial service RCA is more pronounced during periods of net IIP surplus compared to net IIP deficit periods. Our findings suggest that a net IIP surplus is beneficial for both financial stability and international competitiveness.
Topic:
Economics, Investment, Financial Stability, Internationalization, and Economic Competition
Political Geography:
Global Focus

393. Lessons from COVID-19: Managing Borders in the Next Global Public-Health Crisis

Author:
Meghan Benton and Lawrence Huang
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
In March 2020, the global mobility system shut down in previously unimaginable ways. As COVID-19 cases multiplied, governments closed borders and introduced sweeping travel restrictions, entry bans, and suspensions of asylum and refugee resettlement. These policies evolved over time, giving rise to a complex web of mobility restrictions, conditions, and exemptions for certain groups, with undeniable consequences for societies and economies around the world. Four years on, migration has returned to the pre-pandemic norm, but governments should not forget the costs of unplanned, long-lasting, and stringent travel restrictions. This is a key moment to examine the pandemic’s lingering impacts on mobility as well as to build a bench of evidence-based tools to manage mobility during future public-health crises. This brief highlights the importance of mobility measures that are clear, equitable, streamlined, and prepared to adapt to future challenges. This capstone brief concludes a series of studies by MPI’s Task Force on Mobility and Borders during and after COVID-19 that explores opportunities to improve international coordination regarding border management during public-health crises. Regional case studies in this series look at Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and South America. Its thematic studies consider the role of digital health credentials in facilitating movement, the use of risk analysis to shape border policies, and the rise of remote work and “digital nomads.”
Topic:
Migration, Borders, Crisis Management, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

394. Managing International Protection Needs at Borders

Author:
Lucía Salgado, Susan Fratzke, Lawrence Huang, and Emma Dorst
Publication Date:
07-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
National borders are one of the primary apertures through which publics perceive and judge migration trends and policy. Dysfunction at borders has implications that go well beyond national security, affecting commerce and trade as well as human mobility of various kinds. For asylum seekers, who generally must reach another country’s territory in order to seek protection, borders can represent the difference between danger and safety. As publics in many countries become increasingly vocal in their dissatisfaction with the management of their nation’s borders, policymakers face the difficult task of designing border systems that prevent the outbreak (or perception) of chaos, even as major displacement crises and the complexities of mixed humanitarian, economic, and family reunification migration strain outmoded infrastructure. This report—part of the Beyond Territorial Asylum: Making Protection Work in a Bordered World initiative led by MPI and the Robert Bosch Stiftung—examines the key elements of an effective and protection-sensitive border system. It begins with an overview of what makes border management challenging at the best of times, and particularly so amid acute displacement crises. It then explores the core features of border processes capable of responding to mixed migration while protecting the right to seek asylum, and what conditions need to be in place for these procedures to be successful.
Topic:
Migration, Borders, Asylum, Protection, and Irregular Migration
Political Geography:
Global Focus

395. The End of Asylum? Evolving the Protection System to Meet 21st Century Challenges

Author:
Susan Fratzke, Meghan Benton, Andrew Selee, Emma Dorst, and Samuel Davidoff-Gore
Publication Date:
07-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
The international protection regime is under increasingly untenable pressure, and the obsolescence of the policy architecture on which it relies is becoming more and more apparent. The territorial asylum system, which requires asylum seekers to reach another country’s territory in order to seek protection, has proven itself to be a blunt tool with which to address the protection challenges of the 21st century. New crises, protracted displacement situations, and expanding norms about who merits protection have created a growing population of individuals in need of humanitarian protection. At the same time, other mobility pressures—including those rooted in demographic shifts, economic inequality, and climate change—have produced high levels of mixed migration, adding to the strain on border and asylum adjudication systems. This report, which concludes the Beyond Territorial Asylum: Making Protection Work in a Bordered World initiative led by MPI and the Robert Bosch Stiftung, sets out a vision for the ongoing evolution of the international protection system, with a focus on the future of asylum. It analyzes promising developments and best-in-class ideas around facilitating orderly entry, ensuring system efficiency, and building regional capacity, and how these elements could foster a system that is better at providing protection for those who need it and at securing public trust by reducing chaos at borders and within public systems that must manage migration.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Governance, Borders, Asylum, and Protection
Political Geography:
Global Focus

396. Engaging Employers in Growing Refugee Labor Pathways

Author:
Emma Dorst, Kate Hooper, Meghan Benton, and Beatrice Dain
Publication Date:
07-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Refugee labor pathways, which focus on helping displaced people with in-demand skills access existing economic immigration channels, have attracted considerable attention in recent years. The appeal is two-fold: From a humanitarian perspective, they open additional opportunities for refugees and other displaced people to move to safety. From a labor market perspective, they offer access to an additional talent pool at a time when many employers are struggling to recruit qualified workers. Such programs now exist in several countries, with the largest in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Designed and implemented as a partnership between these countries’ governments and the nongovernmental organization Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB), these pathways aim to help jobseekers overcome obstacles that can be exacerbated by displacement, such as difficulty connecting with potential employers or providing identity or credential documentation. As these programs progress from the pilot stage, the central role employers play and their impact on efforts to achieve scale have gone largely unexplored. This first-of-its-kind report aims to fill this gap by examining employers’ experiences with recruiting displaced talent and ideas for program improvements. The analysis, conducted by MPI and drawing on unpublished TBB survey data on employer engagement, draws in part on consultations with employers, policymakers, and civil-society stakeholders.
Topic:
Labor Issues, Employment, and Refugees
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Global Focus

397. Bridging the Gap between the Gig Economy and Migration Policy

Author:
Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh and Meghan Benton
Publication Date:
07-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
The gig economy—that is, work or services mediated through digital platforms and generally performed by independent contractors or freelancers—has been a growing fixture of the global economy for more than a decade, expanding considerably during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though data and research are uneven, a growing body of evidence indicates that immigrants are at the heart of this growing sector in many economies worldwide. As governments have grappled with the meteoric rise of the gig economy, however, migration and migrants have been somewhat of an afterthought. Many governments have focused on how to classify workers, while others have sought to expand eligibility for minimum wages and holiday or sick pay to gig workers. But even where policymakers have sought to think creatively, they have largely overlooked key considerations in the migration policy space. This policy brief examines government responses around the globe to the rise of the gig economy and migrant employment within it, and how gig economy labor policies and migration policies could be adjusted to benefit migrants, receiving communities, and labor markets. The brief starts with an introduction to the gig economy, who works in it, and some common challenges faced by gig workers of all origins. It then considers key questions at the intersection of gig work and immigration and integration policy, offering recommendations for ongoing policy conversations and future research.
Topic:
Economy, COVID-19, Gig Economy, and Migration Policy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

398. Public Opinion of Climate Migrants: Understanding What Factors Trigger Anxiety or Support

Author:
Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Lawrence Huang
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Climate change and extreme weather events are predicted to dramatically alter patterns of human mobility around the world. This poses an urgent policy question: How will receiving communities react to the arrival of people displaced by disasters and climate impacts? The degree of public support for newcomers can shape how policy responses are designed, implemented, and received by the public. But public opinion is not always easy to predict, nor is it static or fixed. A review of polling and experimental data from around the world suggests that climate migration may trigger anxiety if accompanied by a sense of disorder, unfairness, or loss of control, but also that communities can rally to support large displaced populations, given the right conditions. Efforts to increase support for climate migrants often draw on common narratives—of urgency, of climate migrants’ victimhood, or of their ability to make positive contributions to climate action—but these all come with their own risks and trade-offs. This issue brief looks at what is known about public opinion of climate migrants, and what lessons can be gleaned from broader efforts to mitigate public anxiety and build welcoming communities in the context of rapid societal change. It reflects on how common narratives can create environments more or less welcoming of climate migrants, and how they shape the space policymakers have to think creatively about how to manage climate migration.
Topic:
Migration, Public Opinion, and Climate Refugees
Political Geography:
Global Focus

399. The Role of Immigrant Workers in the Green Transition

Author:
Kate Hooper and Lawrence Huang
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Governments around the world have committed to decarbonizing their economies, but green transition goals will hinge on recruiting workers with the right skills to fill jobs in sectors such as clean energy. Apprenticeship and training programs, including for workers displaced from higher-polluting sectors, will be an important part of meeting this challenge. But it takes time to develop and scale up such programs, and the urgency of cutting global emissions has pushed policymakers and employers to also consider other strategies, including recruiting workers from abroad. This issue brief reviews the evidence on labor shortages in the green economy and on immigrant employment in green and brown (carbon-intensive) jobs. It then assesses the implications for immigration policymaking, including on admissions, immigrant integration, and international labor migration partnerships. Immigration, the authors argue, already plays and will continue to play a key role in the green transition, but there are risks to relying on immigration alone to address these labor shortages. Instead, immigration policy updates should be paired with other investments, including in worker reskilling, credential recognition, and global talent pool development.
Topic:
Migration, Carbon Emissions, Green Transition, and Green Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

400. Displacement and International Protection in a Warming World

Author:
Samuel Davidoff-Gore and Lawrence Huang
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Most climate-related displacement occurs within a country’s territory, but when people cross borders, it poses particular challenges. Policymakers in destination countries face the task of simultaneously managing borders and addressing arriving migrants’ emergency assistance and protection needs. Yet, the migration and refugee policy tools available are rarely, if ever, designed with climate displacement in mind. There is no consensus, for example, on what status climate-displaced people should receive, what rights and benefits they are entitled to, and how states should respond if climate change has rendered their homes uninhabitable. And unless policymakers proactively manage climate displacement, these movements can further weaken already fragile migration management and asylum systems. This issue brief explores what role the international protection system can and should play in responses to cross-border climate displacement and highlights steps policymakers could take to diversify the policy toolkit beyond the protection realm.
Topic:
Climate Change, Migration, Refugees, Displacement, Protection, and Climate Refugees
Political Geography:
Global Focus