Migrant businesses and entrepreneurship

Migrant entrepreneurship has received increasing attention from policy makers, stakeholders and scholars. In both the Action Plan for the integration of third country nationals and the 2020 Entrepreneurship Action Plan, the European Commission emphasises that entrepreneurship represents an alternative form of decent and sustainable employment for migrants. This also follows recent academic and non-academic studies on the topic (European Commission, 2016; Rath, Solano and Schutjens, 2019). There are at least four reasons why policies and measures should focus on supporting migrant entrepreneurs, especially in early stages of the business: • Self-employment represents a way towards empowerment. Although it cannot be taken for granted that self-employment provides migrants with a higher income in comparison to those who opted for a salaried employment (see Bradley, 2004), self-employment represents a way to tackle unemployment, and underemployment - professional downgrading and employment in poorly paid, dangerous and demanding jobs (Rath, Solano and Schutjens, 2019). Furthermore, through migrant entrepreneurship, migrants can improve their social status in the receiving society (Allen and Busse, 2016; Basu, 2001; Solano, 2015). • The impact of migrant entrepreneurship goes way beyond the benefits for the individual entrepreneur. In quantifiable terms, the number of firms, the employment creation, the volume in trade and sales are increasing, something that may benefit the economy in general (Desiderio, 2014). Migrant entrepreneurs also bring about qualitative economic and market changes that result in relatively new products and processes. They gravitate to particular neighborhoods or areas, thereby creating interesting places for leisure and consumption and revitalizing these areas (see, Aytar and Rath, 2012). • A relevant number of migrants starts a business. While many international migrants are economically active as wage workers (i.e., employees), a small but significant number has chosen or would like to start a business. About 13 per cent of all foreign-born migrants in OECD countries are selfemployed (OECD, 2010 and 2013). The same happens for the EU28 countries, in which around the 12% of foreign population is self-employed (Eurostat, 2017). In many countries the rate of self-employment among migrants is higher than the one of natives (Eurostat, 2017; OECD, 2010 and 2013). • Migrant-owned business are likely to fail and to be in low-profitable sectors. Despite self-employment and entrepreneurship represent a promising alternative option for migrants to access the labour market, they need to be adequately supported by policies and initiatives. In fact, migrant enterprises have higher failure rates than nativeowned ones and tend to concentrate in low-profitable sectors (e.g., petty trade) with no possibilities of growth (Desiderio and Mestres 2011; OECD, 2010; Rath and Schutjens, 2016). The difficulties that migrant entrepreneurs have in running the business is due to some specific obstacles that migrants – and, more in general, vulnerable groups -face when they want to start a business. The obstacles are well-known and there is an extensive literature on this (Desiderio, 2014; Rath and Swagerman, 2016): • they have difficulties in accessing credit, especially for financial institutions. As they often lack collaterals (e.g., they do not own a house), financial institutions are likely to deny credit to them. Consequently, migrant entrepreneurs normally receive small loans from relatives, friends and other migrants. This hampers the possibility of entering in sectors that requires a relevant starting capital, which are normally more profitable. • migrant entrepreneurs have difficulties to deal with the bureaucracy of the host country. They have difficulties in understanding all the administrative steps to start the business. • they (often) lack of familiarity with the (business) environment and the market where they start the business. Having only limited knowledge of the context of the destination country – with often information received from other migrants – tunnels them towards ethnic and/or not profitable markets. • a limited personal network, which is often composed of other migrants, does not help in dealing with bureaucracy or accessing information on potential unexplored market – as other migrants have often limited information as well. In conclusion, migrant entrepreneurship may represent an alternative way to access the labour market of the host | 2 country. However, migrant entrepreneurship often results in low-profitable highly-demanding micro businesses, which do not represent a decent form of employment. This is because of the barriers that migrants face when it comes to start a business. Migrant entrepreneurship needs to be supported to become an alternative form of decent employment. Policy makers and support providers (e.g. public employment services, NGOs, microcredit institutions) often face many obstacles in the design and implementation of support policies for migrant entrepreneurs. This handbook is addressed to policy makers in the field and support providers and aims at summarizing the main kinds of support that can be provided to migrant entrepreneurs and the factors for successful support measures. In doing this, we present some good practices.

Objective: The objective of the study is to design an EU-wide scheme to attract high-skilled non-EU resident entrepreneurial innovators, and to facilitate the creation and development of high-potential companies in Europe. The study fits to the EC’s objective to boost innovation, growth and investments by unleashing the EU’s full capacities and competitiveness, while addressing the consequences of demographic ageing and offsetting skills shortages in the continent. Summary: The study will recommend a scheme to attract 20,000 migrant entrepreneurs per year to the EU through the creation of an electronic platform of services to potential migrant entrepreneurs, possible financial support and a promotion campaign. The direct objectives of the schemes are to facilitate access to the EU for non-EU nationals (visa scheme), create incentives (including linking to financial support), facilitate access to EU ecosystems, incubator schemes and private funding (via the platform) as well as to inform aspiring entrepreneurs. The study will include amongst other an assessment of existing (public and semi-public) initiatives in following EU Member States: Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, and Spain. Moreover, it will benchmark these against schemes in a number of non-EU countries with successful entrepreneurial support initiatives.

Research Questions Where do Chinese migrant entrepreneurs come from and why do they migrate? Where do they settle, and how do they organize their economic and social activities? How are they perceived by local and migrant African entrepreneurs in their host country? Does this perception correspond to the discourse of cooperation propagated by the Chinese and African governments? How does the Chinese presence influence the development of African host societies? Contribution to International Research This comparative study on the Chinese migration into two West African countries explores the economic and political processes triggered by the Chinese migration. It analyses the interactions of the local population with the Chinese migrant entrepreneurs as well as the former’s innovative reactions toward the strategies and practices of the latter. The combination of the different regional research capacities at the GIGA within one research team allows us to address this multidimensional research problem with adequate regional and multidisciplinary competences and research strategies. Research Design and Methods Our research field is characterized by high degrees of informality, especially regarding migratory paths, residence status, economic activities, social organization and the political action of all actors involved. In view of this, existing quantitative data on the micro- and meso-levels could not be taken as a reliable basis for our analyses. Moreover, the economic interests that characterize our field had the effect of reduced acceptance on the part of our informants of standardized instruments such as questionnaires. For these reasons, our research concentrates on coordinated qualitative comparative case studies within and across Ghana and Senegal in order to produce reliable research findings. In accordance with our research questions, qualitative data collection was conducted on a micro-level, drawing on the method of actor-centred participant observation and its adaptations in narrative interviews. Additional semi-structured interviews were conducted to ensure comparability across cases. In addition, visual ethnographic methods were applied (photo essays, network-mapping) as a basis for joint interpretation in the overarching research context. Preliminary Results We had assumed that networks formed the dominant model of social organization for both the African and the Chinese actors and groups we studied, and that networks were the key factors to understanding the interaction between these two groups. In the field, however, we were unable to establish any empirical evidence that the Chinese individual economic sojourners (or small groups forming family-owned businesses), whose business models tend to be highly speculative, are engaging in any form of meaningful social and economic interaction with their African counterparts beyond primarily functional and opportunistic buyer–seller or employer–employee relationships. African traders also did not reveal any stronger motivation to open their networks to their Chinese counterparts. Based on our observations, we conclude that a wide range of African actors engages in innovative practices not through social exchange and mutually beneficial cooperation with the Chinese newcomers but by creatively appropriating the unintended opportunities that Chinese actors provide in the local African settings through their distinct social and economic practices. However, the significations that are inscribed into the diverse Chinese social and economic practices and the stimuli they represent are contested between diverse African actors, since their social and economic positioning, their interests and interpretations, and their capacities for adaptation differ greatly. The Chinese business strategy of large-scale wholesale trading in combination with the low cost of the commodities they sell has facilitated the engagement of larger social strata with limited financial means in trading activities. These changes in market access, not least, have had a profound impact on Senegalese and Ghanaian market orders. Not surprisingly, many of the new traders whose access to this profession has directly benefited from the Chinese presence also closely observe the latter’s business strategies. All interviewed Chinese traders, for instance, unanimously employed the logic of high turnovers at small profit rates, aspiring to maximize incomes through sheer volume. Once the African traders have realized that trading in Chinese goods provides solid opportunities for capital accumulation and growth, they have turned their gaze toward China as source for their commodities.

Eine Vielzahl von Studien sind bislang vorgelegt worden, die die Arbeitsmarktintegration von Migrantinnen und Migranten thematisiert haben. Schwerpunkt der meisten empirischen Analysen war die Frage der Arbeitsmarktintegration von Migranten. Migrantinnen wurden hingegen häufig als "tied movers" betrachtet, deren Erwerbs- und Migrationsentscheidung der ihrer Partner nachgeordnet ist. Wie diese geschlechtsspezifischen Migrationsmuster das spätere Erwerbs- und Familienverhalten von Migrantinnen prägen und welche Konsequenzen sich daraus für soziale Ungleichheit und Prozesse sozialer Exklusion ergeben, war bislang nur selten Gegenstand empirischer Untersuchungen. In diesem Projekt versuchen wir diese Lücke zu füllen, indem wir, aufbauend auf dem Lebenslaufansatz, die Wechselwirkungen zwischen Migrations-, Erwerbs- und Familienbiographie im Leben von Migrantinnen untersuchen. Als Datenbasis verwenden wir die IAB-Migrations- und Flüchtlingsstichprobe des Sozio-Oekonomischen Panels (GSOEP), die integrierten Erwerbsbiographien des IAB (IEBS) sowie Daten des Mikrozensus. Die Analysen konzentrieren sich auf Migrantinnen, die zwischen 1990 und 2015 nach Deutschland gezogen sind. Ziel unserer Analysen ist es, erstens einen Beitrag zum Verständnis des Arbeitsmarkt- und Familienverhaltens der neuen Migrantengruppen auf Basis der reichhaltigen Längsschnittdaten zu geben, die mittlerweile für Deutschland zur Verfügung stehen. Zweitens soll im Rahmen des Projekts die zum Teil unverbundene Literatur zur Familien- und Arbeitsmarktdynamik von Migrantinnen und Migranten integriert werden. Drittens leisten wird aufbauend auf dem Lebensverlaufsansatz einen Beitrag zum Verständnis, wie sich frühe Lebensereignisse und -bedingungen, insbesondere zum Zeitpunkt der Migration auf die spätere Familien- und Erwerbsdynamik auswirken.

This paper addresses a classical question: Does immigration reduce wages and increases unemployment in receiving countries? Fears that immigrants take jobs away from natives have been fuelled by the current financial and economic crisis in host countries on both sides of the Atlantic and resulted in tighter immigration policies. From a theoretical perspective, an increasing labor supply through immigration does not necessarily reduce wages, or, if labor markets are not perfect, increase unemployment. In contrast, economic theory predicts that capital stocks adjust to labor supply changes such that aggregate wage levels and the real interest rate remain constant. Similarly, trade and the adjustment of production can absorb changes in labor supply such that immigration leaves wages and employment opportunities unaffected. It remains thus an empirical question, whether and to which extent immigration does actually affect labor markets in host countries. There exists a comprehensive empirical literature addressing these issues. The overwhelming share of this traditional literature uses the variance of the foreigner share across local labor markets for the identification of the immigration effects. Meta-studies of this literature indicate that an immigration of 1 percent of the labor force reduces wages by no more than 1 percent and increased the unemployment rate by less than 1 percentage point. Even these small effects need not to be significant. This literature has been challenged by an increasing criticism which states that the area approach systematically underestimates the wage and employment effects if other factors such as native migration, regional trade and capital mobility equilibrate the effects of immigration across local labor markets. A recent literature uses therefore the variance of the foreigner share across education and work experience groups at the national level for identification. Although some of these studies find effects which are substantially larger than those of the traditional literature, there exist meanwhile a number of studies which find similar aggregate effects as the traditional area approach. These studies consider that capital stocks adjust to labor supply shocks and that natives and immigrants are imperfect substitutes in the labor market, i.e. do not perfectly compete even if they possess the same education and work experience level. A shortcoming of most of the recent literature is that it does not address the impact of immigration systematically in a setting with imperfect labor markets and persistent unemployment. Novel approaches which consider wage-bargaining and other imperfections, find that immigration can do both, reduce wages and increase unemployment. Although the effects disappear in the long-term when capital stocks adjust, they may affect labor markets significantly in the short term. The most important challenge for immigration and integration policies is however the finding that different groups in the labor markets are affected by immigration in very different ways: While natives tend to benefit across all education groups from immigration, immigrants lose substantially from further immigration in terms of lower wages and higher unemployment. Addressing these inequalities forms the main challenge for immigration, integration and related labor market policies.

Concerns that immigrants take jobs away from natives and reduce their wages are widespread and have a substantial impact on immigration policies. The financial crisis and the subsequent economic down-turn in most OECD countries have further fanned these fears. Albeit not uncontroversial, the overwhelming share of the recent empirical literature finds, however, that immigration has only moderate effects on wages and employment. More specifically, the empirical findings indicate that i. the aggregate effects of immigration on wages and unemployment are small, ii. most native workers tend to benefit from immigration in terms of higher wages and lower unemployment risks, iii. the already existing immigrant workforce suffers substantially from further immigration, iv. high skilled and older workers tend to benefit more from immigration than less skilled and younger workers. Immigration and integration policies can improve the welfare effects and mitigate adverse distributional effects by pursuing skill-selective immigration policies and policies which increases the competiveness of immigrants in the labor market: e.g. via language courses, the acknowledgement of occupational and other professional degrees.

"Theoretical background and objectives Economic participation of migrants has been a major problem in many European countries for the last decades. There is overwhelming statistical evidence for the problematic labour market status of migrants, but data also show that not all migrant groups are affected to the same extent. Previous studies have revealed that differences in socio-economic integration are strongly related to ethnic origin. However, this research does not allow us to firmly establish to what extent cultural and religious factors are responsible for the differential socio-economic position of ethnic groups. Therefore, we investigate the effects of host-country orientation and cultural difference of migrants on their socio-economic integration in Germany, analysing unemployment and employment durations of male and female migrants, as well as transitions from domestic work to employment for female migrants from Turkey, Former Yugoslavia, Greece, Spain and Italy. Given the large gap in unemployment and employment rates not only between natives and migrants, but also between groups of migrants, we look at several economic, human capital and cultural factors in order to test whether migrant-specific characteristics can help to explain ethnic group differences in labour market outcomes. The migrant-specific cultural variables we investigate include host-country language proficiency, interethnic contacts, host-country media consumption, and religiosity. In the case of married female migrants, the analysis moreover takes relevant characteristics of their husbands into account, which have not received attention in earlier studies. Research design and methodology The German Socio-Economic Panel provides reliable longitudinal data, allowing us to conduct analyses over a period of nearly 20 years (1988-2006). We use duration data to analyse the hazard of labour market status transitions by estimating Cox regression models with a random frailty term to account for unobserved heterogeneity. Individual longitudinal data on employment trajectories of migrants have been combined with labour market context data and relevant human capital and cultural factors. A longitudinal approach is crucial for addressing this research question, since the relationship between socio-cultural factors such as host-country language proficiency and interethnic contacts and labour market integration is likely to be recursive. Our samples cover not only persons born outside Germany, but also their 2nd generation offspring. Findings The results indicate that although labour market transitions of migrants strongly depend on the labour market context, host-country orientation and religiosity also have a certain impact on the labour market integration of individual migrants, especially on transitions into employment of male migrants and married migrant housewives. However, while for most of our cultural variables we find significant effects on the individual level, these factors do not help to clarify the differences among the different migrant groups, which persist at a similar level even after controlling for labour market, general human capital, as well as cultural variables."

Education and employment are crucial factors concerning social and economic integration into Austrian society. However, recent studies have shown that women with a migration background are disadvantaged with regard to employment and education when compared to men with a migration background as well as to women without such a migration background. The reasons for these disadvantages are manifold and comprise factors such as inadequate qualifications, low educational profiles, but also discrimination, difficulties in acknowledging foreign qualifications or the need to prove German language skills on a very high level. Furthermore, factors that are not easy to measure, such as benefits of family and social networks or attitudes regarding family or work, may indirectly impact on the employment situation and educational profiles of women with a migration background. Moreover, factors unrelated to migration, such as lack of positions that offer work-life balance, weaken the position of women with a migration background on the labour market. This said, the employment and education situation of women with a migration background is in fact very heterogeneous. In particular, first generation migrants and women coming from countries outside of the EU show lower labour market participation rates and face higher unemployment than other groups. However, to date, systematic analysis examining the combination of factors explaining the employment and education situations of women with migration history are scarce. Moreover, there is a need to combine existing statistical data on socio-demographic characteristics, educational attainment, de-skilling, discrimination, and “soft” factors, such as attitudes to work, family and education to better understand individual decision-making processes and structural disadvantages. Objectives of the project • Analyse the employment and education situation of young migrant women with specific regard to social and family contexts. • Identify factors that shape labour market and educational outcomes. • Identify good practices to promote the labour market performance of women with a migration background • Formulate policy recommendations. To reach these aims, the study applies multiple methods including desk research, secondary statistical analysis, and qualitative interviews with experts, practitioners and young women themselves.

The objectives of the Study are two-fold: To analyze the key labour market determinants of migration flows from selected Arab Mediterranean Countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and the Occupied Palestinian Territories), with a particular emphasis on demographic pressures, wage differentials and relative income disparities with the EU, employment policies, labour market flexibility and unemployment rates; this analysis includes the impact of migration on the labour markets of Arab Mediterranean Country (AMCs) labour markets; To propose a series of specific recommendations to improve the design of the EU’s migration policies towards AMCs and policy options available to them for the management of mismatches between labour supply and demand.

Using the latest statistical data from six GCC states and recent publications of the GCC Secretariat, a detailed profile is presented of immigration and employment across the region. Evaluation is made of the available data sources (listed in the appendix) and the actual extent of immigrant presence in both population and labour market is critically examined. Employment according to public/private sector, and also for fifteen economic sectors, is shown for each country (where available) by citizenship type and gender. Previously unpublished indicators, such as unemployment and participation rates, are calculated where possible by citizenship type, gender and age groups; a few countries provide data on actual nationalities or regional groupings of foreign employees, and these are reproduced here. Previously neglected issues that receive some attention are foreign births, family presence, foreign schoolchildren and duration of residence (the latter available only for the UAE). The emergence of the kafala system is examined in historical context; in particular, emphasis is placed on its role in promoting irregularities in the migration, residence and employment of foreigners across the GCC. Trends in government policies are described, including the recent and significant doubts in some countries about the ability of the kafala system to produce satisfactory outcomes. Some attention is paid to the important policies of nationalization’ of GCC labour markets: a conceptual categorization of such policies is made, according to five different policy objectives. Using both the broad and more detailed sectoral employment data previously presented, evaluation is then made of the degree of success of each country’s initiatives in this area. The paper concludes with an exposition of the commonalities and differences across the GCC in managing their labour markets and immigration. The structural specificities of each country are outlined, along with tentative prognoses of their future needs for immigrant workers.

Since 2014, Turkey has not only hosted the world’s largest refugee population but has also modeled a best practice for the global refugee policy discussion. Turkey’s opening of its health, education, employment, and social services systems to Syrians under Temporary Protection (SuTP) sits at the basis of this successful response. At the start of 2019/2020 school year, 684,253 Syrian children under temporary protection were enrolled in the Turkish schools, while a network of 179 Migrant Health Centers is currently operating in thirty provinces across Turkey. Turkey has been the main funding source of this impressive response, incurring a total cost of more than $40 billion according to official data. In line with the principle of burden-sharing, which is highlighted in the Global Compact on Refugees, the international community has also made resources available to support Turkey in this unprecedented effort; over $4 billion has been mobilized through the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan for Turkey (3RP) since 2015. Within this framework, Turkey’s experience on the key issues such as jobs and employment should be examined as lessons for both refugee hosting countries and donor countries alike. The country has provided Syrians under Temporary Protection the right to access work permits and formal employment. As a result, a total of 132,497 work permits have been issued to Syrian nationals between 2016 and 2019. This is why the United Nations Development Programme in Turkey (UNDP Turkey), as a long standing development partners in Turkey and the coleader of the Refugee and Resilience Response Plan (3RP), and the Atlantic Council IN TURKEY, the Turkey program of the Atlantic Council, a leading Washington-based think tank, have partnered for this research. The Atlantic Council launched its Turkey program in 2018, which grew out of its engagement with Turkey over ten years and is increasingly involved in migration and refugee issues, to contribute to the ongoing policy debate. Building on the experience and expertise of both organizations, our joint policy report, which is to be released after the June 30 Brussels Conference, aims at outlining pragmatic and innovative options at policy and programmatic levels to facilitate refugees’ access to decent employment. Self-reliance and access to formal employment Facilitating self-reliance for such a large number of refugees’ households remains a daunting task, even in the medium to long-term. This is especially the case in a context where increasing levels of unemployment in Turkey compounded by the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have posed a serious challenge to job creation and increased competition for available opportunities. Despite a concerted effort and strong leadership , there have been challenges for refugees to achieve self-reliance, best highlighted by a recent assessment that 1.6 million refugees live below the poverty line. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the vulnerability associated with informal work and casual labor, with many refugees and host communities facing a sudden and unexpected loss of income. The internationally supported cash response to directly assist the most vulnerable (the Emergency Social Safety Net—ESSN—and the Conditional Cash Transfer for Education—CCTE) has been crucial in allowing refugees to meet their basic needs over the past couple of years. However, given the overall cost of such programs in the long-term, access to income and formal employment remains a key challenge. The Exit Strategy from the ESSN program released by the government in December 2018 marks a step towards a conducive policy framework to facilitate refugees’ access to formal employment. Policy options The main findings of the joint report highlight that: 1. The main challenge remains in matching refugees to the labor market by raising enhancing their skills. While international partners have contributed to this end over the past years, it hasn’t been enough for refugees to become employable options for many large Turkish companies—many of the most skilled Syrians fled to Europe. 2. Businesses’ support programs need to go beyond job placement of refugees in small businesses in exchange for business development support and grants. More integrated structural investments at the local level are needed, particularly, in industrial, manufacturing, and agricultural value chains. 3. While the presence of refugees can be seen as an asset to catalyze local development, host communities need to be supported equitably as well. 4. The current priority towards the formalization of existing jobs is paramount to ensuring decent work conditions for refugees, appropriate access to income, and fair competition between job seekers. The recent inspections to raise awareness of employers on employment regulations for Syrian workers have yielded important results in Istanbul, significantly increasing work permit applications by employers. This could be applied elsewhere. Private sector engagement and digital solutions Based on other international experiences, we also identified deepening engagement with the private sector and exploring digital livelihoods opportunities as emerging solutions to this issue. These two solutions are particularly tailored to the challenges of the situation in Turkey, as they can create opportunities for both Turkish companies and individual Syrians, alleviating pressure on the labor market. Digital solutions (such as digital entrepreneurship, e-commerce, or language and translation businesses) are particularly promising as they create new, sustainable job creation dynamics that have the potential to expand both within Turkey to benefit most vulnerable refugees and internationally by accessing new markets. Given the scale of the task at hand, every possible contribution should be maximized to further unleash the resilience and potential demonstrated by Syrian refugees and their host communities. The COVID-19 pandemic is proving to be an important test on the government’s and their international partners’ relevance and flexibility and their ability to quickly step up efforts in that direction. Pursuing these solutions and policy options would help further promote the refugee response in Turkey as a best practice in implementing the key principles of the Global Compact for Refugees.

This paper summarises the findings of country studies on the main economic and demographic effects of labour migration in the EU Eastern partners and Russia. The major positive effect of labour migration in the sending countries is that it provides temporary relief on domestic labour markets and helps reduce unemployment, particularly in economically-deprived areas. An inflow of labour migrants from other countries helps address existing skill shortages and finance pay-as-you-go pension schemes that are coming under considerable pressure because of population ageing. But the boost to pensions is small because of the widespread informal employment of migrants. Demographers of the sending countries worry that large-scale outflows of native workers which significantly exceed inflows of workers from other countries depletes population and changes its age structure. This, of course, is particularly dangerous for ageing societies. Findings on the economic effects of migration through the return of skilled workers are mixed and remain largely conjectural. Overall, labour migration contributes to the economic development of countries at both ends of the migration spectrum to a lesser extent than it should. This may be attributed to the fact that there are still no enabling conditions for effective brain circulation, productive investments and supply chain relations among migrants in the observed countries.

Notwithstanding the difficulty of framing the topic, this study provides for a preliminary assessment of the impact of the recent global economic crisis on migration flows and employment in Greece. After providing insights into immigration stocks, incoming migration flows and their variation in Greece as well as migration-related flows, notably remittances, in recent months, the paper discusses the main lines of Greek migration policy and the political context in which it develops so as to provide for the context of both legal and irregular migration flows. Furthermore, it analyses the current economic context with a view to highlighting recent changes in the Greek labour market as regards the employment and unemployment rates of both Greeks and immigrant workers. In the concluding section, the paper evaluates to what extent the crisis has affected migration flows into and out of Greece and seeks to make predictions on how the economic crisis may further affect migration trends in Greece. Résumé Eu égard à la difficulté de cerner la thématique, la présente recherche pourvoit une analyse préliminaire de l’impact de la récente crise financière sur la migration et l’emploi en Grèce. Après s’être penchée sur l’effectif des immigrés, les flux migratoires entrants en Grèce et leur variation ainsi que sur la question des rentrées d'argent au cours des derniers mois, l’étude met en exergue les lignes fondamentales de la politique migratoire grecque ainsi que le contexte politique permettant de cerner les flux d’immigrants légaux et irréguliers. En outre, l’étude analyse la constellation économique actuelle en vue de montrer les récents changements survenus au niveau du marché du travail grec tout en tenant compte des taux d’emploi et de chômage des nationaux et des immigrants. En guise de conclusion, la recherche évalue dans quelle mesure la crise a affecté les flux entrants et sortants et tente de faire quelques prédictions se rapportant aux répercussions éventuelles de la crise économique sur les enjeux migratoires dans le pays.

Bilateral Agreements at a Crossroads

Wir untersuchen die Auswirkungen von Handelsliberalisierung und des Schutzes von geistigem Eigentum auf die Arbeitslosenquote von Migrantinnen und Migranten im Vergleich zu Nicht-migrierten Personen. Wir erstellen ein Nord-Süd-Handels- und Wachstumsmodell mit einer positiven stationären Migrationsrate. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die bilaterale Handelsliberalisierung die relative Arbeitslosenquote von Migrantinnen und Migranten bei niedriger Migration verringert und bei hoher Migrationsrate erhöht. Der Schutz geistiger Eigentumsrechte hingegen führt zu einer höheren relativen Arbeitslosenquote von Migrantinnen und Migranten unabhängig vom Ausmaß der Migration. Wir testen und bestätigen empirisch die Vorhersagen, die sich aus der Theorie der Handelsliberalisierung und des Schutzes von geistigem Eigentum ableiten. Projektmethode Theoretische und empirische Analyse Projektziel Die Beziehung zwischen internationaler Handel und die Arbeitslosigkeit von Migranten in Zielländern zu untersuchen.

The negative employment and social developments across Europe since the start of the crisis, coupled with increased fiscal constraints and changing migration patterns, have led to increasing depictions of EU and third-country immigrants as ‘abusers’ of their social protection systems. Member States have accordingly sought reduce migrants’ ability to access social protection benefits, despite the fact that they are disproportionately at risk of poverty and social exclusion. This project looks at the different strategies that migrants have to access social protection within (post) crisis Europe and does so by explicitly integrating social policy and migration studies’ approaches on the phenomenon. More precisely, it aims to study transnational social protection, that we define as migrants’ cross-border strategies to cope with social risks in areas such as health, long-term care, pensions or unemployment that combine entitlements to host and home state-based public welfare policies and market-, family- and community-based practices. This study thus consists in, first, identifying the social protection policies and programs that home countries make accessible to their citizens abroad, and then compiling this information into an online database. We will then aggregate the results of the database into a Transnational Social Protection Index (TSPIx) in order to determine the overall level of engagement of each state with citizens abroad in a comparative way. Second, on the basis of the results of the index, we will select case studies of migrants from two EU and two non-EU countries that vary in their level of engagement in providing social protection to their citizens abroad. We will then undertake multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork to qualitatively assess the informal social protection strategies used by migrants and examine their interaction with formal host and home state social protection provision.

"In this project, we investigate the (sometimes unintended) consequences of policies that have been implemented to regulate immigration and to subsequently facilitate the socio-economic integration of newly arrived immigrants. (1) Networks: First, we exploit a natural experiment in Switzerland, where asylum seekers are randomly assigned to cantons. This immigration policy can be regarded as a transparent and neutral way of distributing refugees across a country to “share a burden”. At the same time, such restrictions regarding free movement within a country come with hefty consequences for the persons affected. On the one hand, a large share of jobs are found through referrals within social networks: in the US, for instance, around 30-60% (Bewley, 2007). At least since Granovetter (1973), a rich theoretical literature has rationalized this fact by modelling networks as non-market institutions that help overcome information frictions inherent in the labor market. From workers' perspective, networks grant their members preferential access to information on high-quality job openings, e.g. as in Calvo-Armengol and Jackson (2004). On the firm side, networks may help alleviate the asymmetric information problem in hiring leading potentially to a better job-match, e.g. as in Beaman and Magruder (2012). In our study, we focus on the value of social networks from the perspective of workers. Swiss asylum policy provides a unique natural experiment to study the effects of social networks on labor market outcomes. Because of the truly exogenous placement, long horizon over which the policy was in place and the large sample size, we can delve deeper into the mechanisms of how social networks affect labor market integration than previous studies have done and look at network structure beyond simply its size. Our findings will enable us to distinguish among a large set of theoretical models of the value of networks from the point of view of individual job seekers. (2) Maternity: At the same time, such immigration policies also affect the social integration of immigrants and, in our case, individual health and wellbeing. Specifically, we exploit the same unique setting to assess the relevance of information on infants' health. Random allocation of asylum seekers in Switzerland allows us to first, study the spatial differences in health care provision across the country. Further, by exploiting that French-speaking refugees are randomly placed in French- or non-French-speaking regions, we can credibly identify the language-match-health-gap, based on refugees that do not speak French as a control group and placed on either side of the language border (in a Difference in Differences framework). By extending the language to a novel (continuous) measure of language distance, we are able to factor out country of origin effects using bi-lateral regressions. A second strand of policies targets the (economic) integration of immigrants and generally of persons outside the labor market. A common approach is to provide measures, so-called Active Labor Market Programs (ALMP) that enhance a jobseeker’s employability (e.g., through additional human capital) or that keep a person close to the labor market through occupational programs. (3) Access Bias: Some measures, however, can negatively affect labor market outcomes, such as unemployment duration and post-unemployment wages, because of factors such as human capital deprivation or lock-in effects. Based on encompassing registry data that allow researchers to control for usually unobserved employability variables, we find evidence of a systematic access bias whereby caseworkers in Switzerland assign unemployed immigrants to activation measures based on what we call a competition logic that is mainly driven by and conforms to an economic rationale and the job center’s performance evaluation. From the perspective of immigrants’ labor market integration, this may be problematic because it results in an overrepresentation of immigrants in measures with little efficacy rather than in measures that could compensate for (some of) their employability disadvantages. Conversely, we find that Swiss citizens are relatively advantaged in the ability to access more measures that promote human capital enhancement (compensation logic) and that have been shown to be successful tools for labor market reintegration. It is plausible that a stronger reliance on the competition logic by caseworkers and the consequential overrepresentation of migrants in low-efficacy measures amplifies migrants’ general labor market disadvantages. (4) Priming: This rather negative stance on integration measures in the form of ALMPs is further advanced by a study where we present indications that ALMP participants are pushed into lower paying jobs compared to equally qualified non-participants. In this study on the effect of subjective beliefs on employment outcomes we find that the employment chances one year after the start of unemployment increase for both ALMP participants and non-participants when self-control and employment beliefs are high. In contrast, higher initial reservation wages increase employment chances for non-participants but substantially reduce them for ALMP participants. Previous studies have shown that beneficial effects of activation measures are often abrogated by lock-in effects, human capital deprivation, and/or negative signals to prospective employers, all of which are particularly harmful for highly skilled workers and higher-paying jobs. We argue that these detrimental effects ultimately push ALMP participants into jobs below their expected salary, where the negative consequences of activation measures are less pronounced. (5) Heterogeneity: A related aspect that is crucial from an integration perspective is whether such effects of ALMPs differ across groups, that is, whether the participation of “natives” turns out to have different consequences for their labor market performance compared to participating immigrants. In this study, we argue that effect heterogeneity between native and migrant participants can provide information about the type of discrimination that migrants face in the labor market. Using encompassing administrative data from Switzerland, we observe all registered jobseekers in 2004 and follow their monthly labor market trajectories over 10 subsequent years. Our findings are consistent with earlier evaluations of ALMPs in Switzerland and elsewhere, which find that participation effects of ALMPs are limited and sometimes even negative. However, findings show that employers value the additional productivity-related information of ALMP participation more if participants have a foreign nationality. We infer that labor market discrimination against migrants is dominated by statistical reasoning on the part of prospective employers. (6) LM-Index: Eventually, we provide a meta-analytical study where we argue that comparative assessments of integration policies fail to properly take confounding factors into account. That is, immigrant groups exposed to integration policies in different countries differ in their characteristics because immigration policies and migrants’ destination choice induce an ex-ante bias. To circumvent this limit to comparative analyses, we aspire to collect and generate data on all existing policy dimensions and subsequently provide a comparative analysis of immigrants’ labor market integration in industrialized countries."

Abstract In 2009, it seems clear that the period of relatively rapid and sustained increase of international migration has come to a halt or, at any rate, slowed down as a result of the financial and economic crisis that started in the summer of 2007. It can be surmised that Spain is likely to be counted among the countries in which the multiple repercussions of the crisis on immigration will be larger and deeper. One reason for it is the fact that in Spain the economic downturn results in exceptionally higher rates of unemployment. Another reason is that the contrast of the new reality generated by the crisis is bound to mark an especially stark contrast with the preceding one. This paper aims at analyzing the major implications of the present financial and economic crisis on Spanish immigration, with particular attention to the community of Moroccan background that lives and works in Spain. The consequences of the recession on migration flows, their changing volume and trends are analyzed, together with its impacts on the demand for labor, unemployment and living conditions. With the many limitations that the paucity of data impose, trends in return migration and in the volume of remittances are examined as well. Looking at the future, it is likely that a long time frame will be required in Spain until the deep effects of the crisis disappear, due to the peculiar characteristics of the Spanish labour market. In such a scenario, it is clear that the forecasts for the employment and opportunities of the immigrant population cannot avoid a certain degree of pessimism. Résumé En 2009, l’augmentation des flux migratoires a subi un fort ralentissement suite à la crise financière et économique qui a commencé au milieu de l'année 2007. On peut affirmer que l'Espagne va probablement figurer parmi les pays dans lesquels les répercussions multiples de la crise sur l'immigration seront plus grandes et plus profondes. Ceci dépend du fait qu’en Espagne le ralentissement de l'économie a provoqué des taux de chômage exceptionnellement plus hauts par rapport à d'autres pays. Une autre raison est que la nouvelle réalité produite par la crise est difficilement réversible. Cette étude propose d’analyser les implications de la crise financière et économique actuelle sur l'immigration espagnole, avec une attention particulière à la communauté marocaine qui vit et travaille en Espagne. Pour répondre à ces objectifs, sont analysés les implications de la récession sur les flux migratoires, leur ampleur et tendances, ainsi que l’impact sur la demande du travail, le chômage et les conditions de vie. Malgré les nombreuses limitations imposées par le manque de données, les tendances de la migration de retour et des transferts financiers sont également examinées. S’agissant des prévisions, il est probable que les effets de la crise ne disparaîtraient de sitôt, en raison des caractéristiques spécifiques du marché du travail espagnol. Dans un scénario pareil, il est clair que les prévisions concernant l'emploi et les opportunités de la population étrangère soient plutôt pessimistes.

Einwanderer treten im Gastland häufig als Anbieter von haushaltsbezogenen Dienstleistungen auf, zum Beispiel im Bereich der Haushaltsführung, Kinderbetreuung und Pflege von älteren Haushaltsangehörigen, und können damit potenziell zur Erhöhung des Arbeitsangebots und der Fertilität von einheimischen Frauen beitragen. Das Projekt untersucht anhand von regional desaggregierten Daten für die Jahre 1996-2012, inwieweit das für Deutschland zutrifft. Datengrundlage ist zum einen das Sozio-ökonomische Panel (SOEP), und zum anderen INKAR (Indikatoren und Karten zur Raumentwicklung). Die Analyse wird regional und nach Qualifikationsniveau differenziert durchgeführt. Projektziel Beantwortung der folgenden Fragen: Entlasten Immigranten einheimische Frauen in Deutschland bei haushaltsbezogenen Dienstleistungen? Trägt dies zur Erhöhung von deren Arbeitsangebot und Fertilität bei? Unterscheiden sich die Effekte je nach Region und Qualifikationsniveau?

Studying and Evaluating the Role of the Media in Migrant Integration: Introductory remarks for the MEDIVA project Europe has experienced important tensions between national majorities and ethnic or religious minorities, more particularly with migrants and their offspring during the past ten years. These tensions largely understood as an ethnic or religious issue have been however exacerbated by the global financial crisis that has hit all EU countries (even if at varying degrees) since 2008. Indeed at these times of economic crisis, rising unemployment and increasing insecurity, non EU citizens who reside in EU countries tend to become the target of xenophobic and racist attitudes. In this context, the question of third country nationals’ (TCN) integration becomes all the more pressing to preserve social cohesion and also to help EU societies overcome the crisis. The media have a role to play under these circumstances in promoting policy discourses and media representations that are pro-integration and not immigrant-phobic. The importance of this role is acknowledged by politicians, policy makers, scholars and migrants/minorities themselves. There have been several initiatives initiated by European institutions such as the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs (DG EMPL), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which have aimed at strengthening the capacity of the media to reflect diversity. Several studies have identified best practices and have presented these with a view to raising awareness among media companies and media professionals. Hard facts and figures are needed to assess and plan pro-integration policies and practices. These should be derived from both qualitative and quantitative measurements. Regular and thorough analysis of different aspects of media production can lead to re-balancing of the output in favour of negatively stereotyped immigrant groups. The MEDIVA project adopts this view and capitalizes on the work done so far by combining it with a series of in-depth interviews with senior journalists across six member states (Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the UK) with a view to understanding better how journalists and other media professionals assess the tools they have so far in dealing with migrant diversity (recruitment/employment conditions, training provided, codes of ethics, knowledge about diversity and how all these are combined in everyday work in news making and programme production). The MEDIVA project will use this added knowledge to create a set of Indicators of Media Capacity to Reflect Diversity and Promote Migrant Integration. This project builds on the existing work but also goes a step further from the studies that exist so far which have generally provided for best practice knowledge, training tool kits and media content analysis but have notyet created a tool for self-/otherassessment and monitoring of the media on reflecting diversity and promoting TCN integration. This paper provides definitions for key terms used in the project, demarcating the field of study and clarifying the project’s objectives.

Migracje zagraniczne i ich wielowymiarowe skutki stają się istotnym komponentem rozwoju w coraz większej liczbie regionów w Polsce. W sensie pozytywnym bądź negatywnym oraz w sposób bezpośredni lub pośredni oddziałują na podstawowe czynniki ich rozwoju, tj. na kapitał ludzki, społeczny oraz finansowy. Ocena tego oddziaływania jest jednak wysoce ambiwalentna (por. ramka 1), aczkolwiek wyniki prezentowanych badań silniej potwierdzają obawy, a w mniejszym stopniu wskazują na szanse, jakie z procesem emigracji wiążą regiony wysyłające. Odpływ migracyjny ogranicza możliwości wykorzystania kapitału ludzkiego i tym samym wyhamowuje dynamikę regionalnej gospodarki. Jednakże emigranci mogą też pozytywnie wpłynąć na możliwości rozwojowe regionu, gdy wykorzystają zdobyte za granicą wiedzę i umiejętności do budowania jego przewagi konkurencyjnej. Kapitał społeczny jest trudno kwantyfikowalny, jednak migracje z pewnością mają wpływ na podstawowe jego kategorie, a mianowicie zarówno na aktywność społeczną, jak i przedsiębiorczość. W pierwszym przypadku znacznie ograniczają regionalny potencjał w tym zakresie, w drugim również, chyba że wzbogacony za granicą kapitał migrantów stanie się cennym źródłem regionalnej innowacyjności po ich powrocie do regionu. Również kapitał finansowy jest niezbędny w procesie rozwoju gospodarczego, a stopień jego wykorzystania w regionie określają m.in. dochody ludności oraz samorządów terytorialnych. Dzięki pracy za granicą dochody mieszkańców mogą się istotnie zwiększyć. Przeznaczane na konsumpcję zwiększają w efekcie popyt wewnętrzny w regionie oraz podnoszą możliwości realizacji nowych inwestycji. Z drugiej jednak strony, jeśli kapitał finansowy analizować w aspekcie sytuacji finansowej samorządów terytorialnych, to odpływ pracowników może oznaczać wymierną utratę dochodów z podatków oraz, w najgorszym wypadku, utratę środków zainwestowanych w wykształcenie i wyszkolenie wykwalifikowanych pracowników.

In the present paper Ukrainian case study is used to examine certain research aspects associated with the research of return migration and subsequent social reintegration of migrants in the country of origin. In this paper by return migrants we mean those who in the post-Soviet period have acquired experience of legal or illegal temporary (in the course of less than three months) stay abroad (in this case in the EU member states) with the purpose of employment and who have by now returned to their home country – Ukraine. The present analysis focuses on four key aspects of re-inclusion of returning migrants: 1) legal re-adaptation, 2) resolution of housing-related problems, 3) employment issue/ conditions for starting a business, and 4) family reunion and socio-cultural re-adaptation to the local community.

The overall purpose of this analysis is to highlight correlations between gross unemployment and gross immigration in 25 European Union Member States. Due to the significant impact of the global economic downturn in December 2007 there are two time frames: (1) Pre-downturn - Quarter 1 of 2001 to Quarter 3 of 2007; (2) Downturn period - Quarter 4 of 2007 to Quarter 1 of 2012. Within the following correlation analysis four types have been identified, with each type being explored with regard to the changes in the relationship between time periods (1) and (2). It is clear from the following analysis that there is a clear relationship between gross unemployment and gross immigration in each country.

The project analyses how changes in policies and regulations affect conditions and opportunities for small business development in different industries over time, and how self-employed persons act in response to changes in opportunity structures. We study strategies of growth and survival within specific industries and markets, but also transitions of self-employment across industries and types of markets. The project will contribute new knowledge through a systematic and coherent longitudinal and spatial investigation of the dynamics of self-employment among immigrants in Sweden. The project systematically applies and develops instruments from recent international research on ethnic minority businesses (EMB). Theory in the field is developed through the integration of entrepreneurship theory and new theoretical contributions from EMB research. Theoretical perspectives on strategies and self-employed as actors is combined with theory on opportunity structures (the framework of ?mixed embeddedness?). Methodologically, the approach implies coordinated analyses of different dimensions on different levels, using a combination of policy studies, case studies and quantitative analyses.

The EMME project aims to promote and raise awareness on early and effective integration of third country nationals in the labour market. To reach this overall objective the project envisages a transnational partnership composed by key actors in the field of labour market integration, private employment service, support and representation of enterprises, education and vocational training. The partner organizations will involve enterprises since the beginning of the project and will offer a range of interconnected services aimed at: Promoting diversity and non-discrimination at the workplace Promoting the use of EU Skills Profile Tool for TCNs Providing training programmes that support TCNs to integrate into the workplace and supporting their skills development Supporting employers in hiring TCNs Providing post placement support to TCNs and employers

A number of researchers in recent years have focused on the changes in employment patterns within the media industry that have resulted in the decline of what was seen as relatively secure full-time employment substituted by an increase in informal, temporary and freelance work, raising concerns about the increased precariousness of media work, with strengthened polarisation between core and peripheral jobs. Yet there has been very little research into the impact of these changes on the recruitment of migrant workers and on the cultural diversity of the workforce. -The main objectives of the study were (a) to examine the issue of workforce diversity in the European media, with specific reference to migrants; (b) to highlight the many aspects of the recruitment process which can pose barriers to those outside the mainstream of society; (c) to explore whether policies in relation to anti-discrimination measures in recruitment were evident within the media sector and the extent to which they have improved employment opportunities for migrants; (d) to establish whether media companies adopted outreach schemes with the aim of recruiting migrant workers and whether they had monitored their implementation; and, (e) to ascertain the issues of discrimination in the industry. -There is no agreement in Europe on what constitutes the ‘economy of culture’, with the media being part of it. Economy of culture is defined for the purpose of this study in terms of David Throsby’s understanding of ‘cultural activities’, which are those characterised by creativity in their production and their output potentially embodies at least some form of intellectual property. When the creative sector enters into the production process of other economic sectors and provides the inputs for the production of non-cultural goods, the resulting activities are referred to as the ‘creative sector’.

The deep economic, political, social and cultural crisis faced by Georgia in the post-Soviet period negatively affected the territorial mobility of the population. A catastrophic reduction in the resources required for demographic growth led to sub-replacement fertility. At this point, emigration processes of extremely unnatural intensity, including labour migration, became of the greatest importance. The authors stipulate that a reduction in the negative impact of labor migration on the demographic situation will result in a switch from sub-replacement to replacement level fertility. In the post-Soviet period the Georgian economy collapsed, standards of living deteriorated and many people went to work abroad. Despite the numerous difficulties associated with emigration, its impact on the economy of Georgia was multilateral. Remittances sent by labour migrants to their home country are an important source of poverty reduction for Georgia. Their impact on small business development is positive. In Georgia, the unemployment rate has fallen and there have been positive structural changes in the balance of labour demand and supply. As discussed in the present paper, the harmonization of economic and migration policy includes many important reforms, including the facilitation of the migrants’ return.

The index focuses on labour immigration (and related rights) in the EU27. The data reflect the policies in place by 1st of January 2012. IMMEX analyses admission schemes for migrant workers, looking at both general-worker schemes and schemes for high-skilled migrants. The index, which has been developed by the Migration Policy Group (MPG), addresses four domains: identification needs; conditions of admission; security of status acquired; rights associated with status. Dimensions are assessed through a set of indicators and policy options (principles of human rights and good governance). The policy options are designed to capture the scope of immigration policies with the first option representing favourable terms laid down in existing international legal instruments, national practices or NGO proposals, and in some instances EC legislation (enacted and proposed). The second and third options are based on less favourable or unfavourable provisions of EC legislation (enacted or proposed) or national legislation. Legal experts in each of the EU27 countries were asked to assess which of the three policy options comes closest to the situation in their respective country. The index is presented by scheme and country, for general migrant workers and high-skilled migrant workers.

Today, the Palestinian Territories are, in terms of numbers emigrating, second only to Jordan and Iran among Middle Eastern and North African countries. Emigration flows increased particularly after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the First Gulf War (1990-91). The same occurred after the crisis of September 2000, when previously unheard of levels of poverty were registered. This paper approaches highly-skilled emigration from the Palestinian Territories by using surveys aimed at investigating those who wished to leave the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Specifically, research conducted in 2007 on a sample of health and higher-education sector employees reveals that 31% wanted to emigrate; in the same year, another survey stressed that one third of the young (aged 10-29 years old) would like to migrate; finally, the 2009 Labour Force Survey found that unemployment rates augment by years of schooling. These findings are alarming and the consequence of several factors including political instability, the deteriorating economic situation, high inflation and scarce employment opportunities. Aujourd'hui, les territoires palestiniens occupent le troisième rang en termes de taux d’émigration parmi les pays du Moyen-Orient et de l'Afrique du Nord, après la Jordanie et l‘Iran. Les flux d'émigration ont particulièrement augmenté à la suite de l'invasion israélienne du Liban en 1982 et de la première guerre du Golfe (1990-91). Ce scénario s’est reproduit après la crise de septembre 2000, quand le seuil de pauvreté de la population a enregistré des niveaux jusque-là jamais atteints. Cette note a pour objectif d’analyser le phénomène de l’émigration des Palestiniens hautement qualifiés à partir des données provenant d’enquêtes évaluant le désir d’émigrer parmi les habitants de Cisjordanie et de la bande de Gaza. En 2007, une enquête menée auprès de salariés des secteurs de l’enseignement supérieur et de la santé a révélé que 31% d’entre eux aimeraient émigrer. Une autre enquête réalisée au cours de la même période souligne qu'un tiers des jeunes âgés entre 10 et 29 ans voudraient partir à étranger. En outre, en 2009, l‘enquête sur les forces de travail a constaté que le taux de chômage a tendance à augmenter avec le nombre d’années d'études. Ces découvertes alarmantes sont la conséquence de plusieurs facteurs: à l’instabilité politique permanente s’ajoute la détérioration de la situation économique, comme en témoignent la hausse du taux d‘inflation et la situation du marché de l’emploi qui ne cesse de se dégrader.

La migration de cadres hautement qualifiés est un fait très récent, en Mauritanie. Elle se trouve favorisée par le déphasage flagrant entre le système de formation universitaire et professionnel et le marché du travail. S’y ajoute le chômage massif des diplômés, dans le contexte d’une économie fragile, qui ne crée pas suffisamment d’emplois qualifiés. Ce phénomène, dont on ignore encore avec précision l’ampleur réelle est, également, ignoré par le système juridique. Le droit du travail et les textes applicables en matière de migrations ne prévoient pas de normes particulières, d’incitations ou d’obstacles spécifiques. Par ailleurs, les données quantitatives et qualitatives relatives aux migrations qualifiées ne sont pas suffisamment connues. De même, la question ne fait pas l’objet de débats poussés dans les milieux académiques, ni au sein de la classe politique, susceptibles de permettre d’en mesurer les avantages et les inconvénients pour le pays. Aussi, n’y a-t-il pas encore de politique nationale en la matière, le pays subissant l’évolution sans chercher à l’orienter. En dépit de l’inexistence de dispositions juridiques spécifiques et de l’insuffisance des données, la présente note se propose, au terme d’une analyse du contexte national et du cadre général des migrations qualifiées, de formuler des propositions afin d’encadrer celles-ci et d’en maximiser le profit, pour le pays, tout en minorant ses éventuels effets néfastes. Highly-skilled migration is a recent phenomenon in Mauritania. It has been encouraged by a growing gap between the university system and the labour market, as well as significant levels of unemployment among the highly qualified within a weak economic environment which does not create enough employment. This phenomenon is difficult to evaluate and is not affected by law. Existing regulations do not provide rules, incentives or hindrances to this kind of migration. Besides, quantitative or qualitative data related to highly-skilled migration is not well enough understood. The issue has not really been discussed in academic or political circles, nor have its positive or negative effects on the local economy been evaluated. As a consequence, the country has experienced highly-skilled migration without trying to control it, without any national policy and without even clear priorities. Despite the absence of legal provisions and a general lack of data, this paper analyses the national context and the general framework of highly-skilled migration and presents some suggestions for framing highly-skilled migration in a way that could maximize positive effects and minimize negative ones.

Frankreich und Deutschland sind bedeutende Einwanderungsländer. In 2010 machten im Ausland geborene Personen 7.2% bzw. 6.3% der jeweiligen Bevölkerung aus (Brücker et al 2013). Trotz unterschiedlicher wirtschaftlicher Situationen (insbesondere hinsichtlich Ungleichheit und Arbeitslosigkeit), hat der jüngste Anstieg von Asylbewerbern und illegaler Immigration in beiden Ländern eine lebhafte Debatte um eine Verschärfung der Immigrationspolitik ausgelöst. Die ökonomischen Auswirkungen der Zuwanderung, insbesondere für die einheimischen Arbeitskräfte, sind dabei zentrale Themen.In vier Arbeitsabschnitten (WPs) soll dieses Projekt der Wirkung von zugewanderten Arbeitskräften auf einheimische Beschäftigung und Löhne nachgehen. Wir erweitern die die bestehende Literatur, indem wir untersuchen, ob und warum sich die Wirkung der Zuwanderer zwischen verschiedenen Ländern unterscheidet. Wir werden insbesondere die Allokation von Aufgaben und Arbeitsplätzen (WP1) und das Ausmaß der Handelsverflechtung (WP2) betrachten, um Arbeitsmarkteffekte der Immigration aufzudecken. Wir wollen zudem die Wechselwirkungen zwischen Arbeitsmarkt­effekten und Immigrationspolitik untersuchen (WP3).WP1 wird sich auf die Nachfrageseite des Arbeitsmarktes konzentrieren. Wir werden untersuchen, wie die Zuwanderung die Allokation von Aufgaben und Arbeitsplätzen innerhalb von Firmen und über Firmen hinweg beeinflusst.WP2 wird zuerst den Folgen von länderspezifisch unterschiedlichen Handelsverflechtungen für die Arbeitsmarkteffekte von Immigration nachgehen. Desweiteren soll untersucht werden, wie das Ausmaß der Unternehmenskonzentration (in Abhängigkeit von der Offenheit des Handels) die Verbindung zwischen Immigration und einheimischen Löhnen beeinflusst.WP3 wird sowohl theoretisch wie empirisch die politischen Determinanten der Immigrationspolitik analysieren, über europäische Länder hinweg und im Hinblick auf verschiedene Arten von Immigration. Es soll zudem darum gehen, wie der Grad der Substituierbarkeit zwischen Zuwanderern und Einheimischen von den Determinanten der Einwanderungspolitik abhängt.WP4 dient der Kooperation. Das Team umfasst Forscher mit ausgeprägten Komplementaritäten, die für dieses Projekt an der Schnittstelle zwischen Migrationsökonomie, Außenhandelstheorie und politischer Ökonomie der Migration gebraucht werden. Die Ergebnisse sollen in gemeinsame Publikationen innerhalb des französischen (WP1, WP2) und des deutschen (WP3) Teams, sowie beider Teams (WP2) einfließen. Wir erwarten desweiteren einen Austausch hinsichtlich der Nutzung der französischen und deutschen Arbeitgeber-Arbeitnehmer-Statistiken.Das Projekt soll die öffentliche Debatte durch ein besseres Verständnis der ökonomischen Effekte der Zuwanderung in Europa bereichern. Die Projektbeteiligten werden ihre Ergebnisse intensiv in die Öffentlichkeit tragen. Die Endergebnisse sollen in hochrangigen Fachzeitschriften und die Politikempfehlungen in Politikjournalen und Blogs veröffentlicht werden.

Le présent rapport cherche à dresser un panorama de la question de la migration hautement qualifiée en Mauritanie. Des données récentes estiment que l’effectif des compétences mauritaniennes de niveau supérieur ayant émigrées représente une proportion comprise entre 10,4% et 12,0% par rapport à l’ensemble de la main d’œuvre mauritanienne ayant un niveau d’instruction supérieur ; ce chiffre correspond égalent à quelques 22,0% du nombre de migrants mauritaniens à l’étranger. La présente note analytique vise à clarifier les causes de la migration qualifiée qui sont étroitement liées avec le fonctionnement du marché du travail dans ce pays. En effet, la Mauritanie demeure un pays à faible revenu dont l’économie se base principalement sur les revenus provenant des ressources naturelles (industries extractives, pêcheries, pétrole, par exemple) et de l'aide provenant de l’étranger. Outre à cette structure économique, le marché du travail est caractérisé par un niveau de chômage élevé et persistant ainsi que par une informalité importante de l’emploi. Par ailleurs, les sortants du système éducatif, notamment les diplômés, se retrouve également confronté à la question du chômage. Ce phénomène laisse à penser qu’une certaine inadéquation entre le système de formation et les besoins du marché du travail existe en Mauritanie. Au déficit d’opportunités d’emploi s’ajoute un niveau de pauvreté élevé favorisant tous types d'émigration, notamment pour les individus ayant un niveau d’instruction supérieur et pouvant probablement davantage se permettre les coûts de l’émigration. The aim of this paper is to offer a profile of highly-skilled migrants from Mauritania. From recent data, we know that highly-skilled emigrants make up about 22.0% of all emigrants; or between 10.4% and 12.0% of the highly-skilled labor force in Mauritania. Here, we focus on the pull factors of this type of emigration which are mainly related to the functioning of the labor market. Mauritania remains a low-income country with an economy based largely on income from natural resources – i.e. fishery industries and extractive activities – as well as foreign aid. High levels of unemployment and informal employment are the main features characterizing this labor market. As the graduate population seems to be particularly vulnerable to such negative labor-market conditions, the mismatch between the educational system and labor-market needs plays a fundamental role in the decision to emigrate. Finally, together with these labor-market determinants, poverty represents a constant push-factor for all types of emigration and thus also for highly-skilled individuals, who can better afford the costs of emigration.

Dieses Projekt verfolgt das Ziel, Umfang und Charakteristiken der Beschäftigung Älterer umfangreich zu analysieren. Im ersten Projektteil benutzen wir zwei umfangreiche administrative Datensätze, um die Charakteristiken der letzten Beschäftigungsphase vor der Verrentung, das Übergangsmuster zwischen Beschäftigung und Verrentung, sowie eine Beschäftigung nach der Verrentung zu analysieren. Hierbei werden die Charakteristiken der Beschäftigten, ihrer Arbeitsmarkthistorien, ihrer Arbeitgeber sowie das ökonomische Umfeld in die Analyse einbezogen. Zudem werden die Zusammenhänge zwischen den einzelnen Aspekten der Beschäftigung Älterer analysiert. Im zweiten Projektteil werden die Determinanten der Beschäftigung Älterer zunächst theoretisch abgeleitet und anschließend empirisch auf der Basis der gleichen Datensätze untersucht. Mit einem Focus auf ökonomisch motivierten Entscheidungen werden wieder individuelle und betriebliche Charakteristiken sowie das ökonomische Umfeld in die Analyse einbezogen. Der letzte Projektteil analysiert wieder auf der Basis von theoretischen Hypothesen mit Hilfe eines dritten verknüpften Arbeitgeber-Arbeitnehmerpaneldatensatzes, ob Personalmaßnahmen einen Einfluss auf die Charakteristiken der Beschäftigung Älterer haben. Dieses Projekt geht somit deutlich über die geringe und verstreute Evidenz zum Thema Beschäftigung Älterer in Deutschland hinaus. Es gibt zum ersten Mal eine vollständige Übersicht über die Charakteristiken und Determinanten der Beschäftigung Älterer. Es schließt nicht nur die ökonomischen Überlegungen der Betroffenen, sondern auch deren Arbeitgeber und des ökonomischen Umfelds mit ein. Politik- und Managementimplikationen dieses Projekts können die Identifizierung von Potenzialen einer Erhöhung der Beschäftigung Älterer sein sowie deren Gründe und Hindernisse. Eine umfangreiche Analyse von Personalmaßnahmen gibt uns zusätzliche Einsichten über die Möglichkeiten von Arbeitgebern, die Beschäftigung Älterer zu erhöhen.