Do high-income or low-income immigrants leave faster?
Do high-income or low-income immigrants leave faster?
We estimate the impact of the income earned in the host country on return migration of labor migrants from developing countries. We use a three-state correlated competing risks model to account for the strong dependence of labor market status and the income earned. Our analysis is based on administrative panel data of recent labor immigrants from developing countries to the Netherlands. The empirical results show that intensities of return migration are U-shaped with respect to migrants’ income, implying a higher intensity in low- and high- income groups. Indeed, the lowest-income group has the highest probability of return. We also find that ignoring the interdependence of labor market status and the income earned leads to an overestimating the income effect on departure.
migration dynamics, labor market transitions, competing risks, immigrant assimilation
54-68
Bijwaard, Govert
e30b2fb4-abc1-4e86-9091-d521d52a0e8a
Wahba, Jackline
03ae9304-c329-40c6-9bfc-d91cfa9e7164
May 2014
Bijwaard, Govert
e30b2fb4-abc1-4e86-9091-d521d52a0e8a
Wahba, Jackline
03ae9304-c329-40c6-9bfc-d91cfa9e7164
Bijwaard, Govert and Wahba, Jackline
(2014)
Do high-income or low-income immigrants leave faster?
Journal of Development Economics, 108, .
(doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.01.006).
Abstract
We estimate the impact of the income earned in the host country on return migration of labor migrants from developing countries. We use a three-state correlated competing risks model to account for the strong dependence of labor market status and the income earned. Our analysis is based on administrative panel data of recent labor immigrants from developing countries to the Netherlands. The empirical results show that intensities of return migration are U-shaped with respect to migrants’ income, implying a higher intensity in low- and high- income groups. Indeed, the lowest-income group has the highest probability of return. We also find that ignoring the interdependence of labor market status and the income earned leads to an overestimating the income effect on departure.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 27 January 2014
Published date: May 2014
Keywords:
migration dynamics, labor market transitions, competing risks, immigrant assimilation
Organisations:
Economics
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 361585
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/361585
ISSN: 0304-3878
PURE UUID: 669c0f22-cd1a-4ee0-a8f0-3d1b56538ca2
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Date deposited: 29 Jan 2014 15:23
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:49
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Author:
Govert Bijwaard
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