Alessandra Venturini

Development and Migration: Lessons from Southern Europe

Policy-makers in OECD countries appear to be increasingly concerned about growing migration pressure from developing countries. At the same, at least within Europe, they typically complain about the low level of internal labor mobility. In this chapter, we try to cast some light on the issues of both internal and external labor mobility. We investigate the link between development and migration and argue, on both theoretical and empirical grounds, that it is likely be nonlinear. More precisely, we find that, in a relatively poor sending country, an increase in income will have a positive impact on the propensity to migrate, even if we control for the income differential with the receiving country, because the financial constraint of the poorest become less binding. Conversely, if the home country is relatively better off, an increase in income may be associated with a fall in the propensity to migrate even for an unchanged income differential. Econometric estimation for Southern Europe over the period 1962–1988 provides substantial support to this approach. We estimate first the level of income for which the financial constraint is no more binding, around

Skilled and unskilled wage dynamics in Italy in the 1990s: changes in individual characteristics, institutions, trade and technology

950, and then the level of income for which the propensity to migrate declines, which is around

Migration in Italy Is Backing the Old Age Welfare

4,300 in 1985 prices. We therefore predict a steady decline in the propensity to migrate from Southern European countries. Similarly, our results highlight the possibility that the pressure to migrate from Northern African countries and other developing countries may increase with further growth.

Does Italy represent an opportunity for temporary migrants from the eastern partnership countries

In this paper, we use individual micro data on workers combined with industry and regional data to study the wage dynamics of skilled and unskilled workers in Italy in the 1991–1998 period. In contrast to previous empirical studies, our data make it possible to analyse, within a single framework, the role of many of the factors indicated in the literature as possible determinants of skilled and unskilled wage dynamics: changes in the individual characteristics of workers, changes in labour market institutions, increasing international integration, and skill‐biased technological progress. Our results show that international integration, both in terms of trade in goods and in terms of international labour mobility, plays a role in determining the wage dynamics of skilled (white‐collar) and unskilled (blue‐collar) workers. Moreover, in line with labour economics research, our findings show that the individual characteristics of workers and the institutional variables are more relevant in explaining skilled and unskilled wage dynamics than wage differentials.

Do illegal migrants compete with national workers

Our research analyzes the effect of changes in migration policies and the accession to the European Union of former countries of emigration, considering the crucial role played by migrants in an aging society. We focus on the demand of family-care workers by using the last five years of the Italian Labour Force Survey dataset. Our results show that especially during the last years of recession, foreign labor (mostly female) has become fundamental in the family sector, favoring the participation of Italian skilled women in the labor market.

Are migrants an asset in recession? : insights from Italy

The paper reviews the dynamics and characteristics of immigrant inflows to Italy from the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries. In particular, it compares Ukrainian and Moldovan migrants, which are the most numerous nationalities. Even though both groups show a feminisation of flows, high participation in the labour market and strong involvement in the domestic and care sectors, our research highlights the existence of two different migration profiles. Migration from Ukraine, mostly mature women, is mainly temporary; on the contrary, Moldovans tend to be younger, with a higher share of male and family reunifications and tend to migrate permanently.JEL codesJ15; J61

A comprehensive labour market approach to EU labour migration policy

ConclusionSome evidence regarding the effects of illegal or irregular immigrants on the receiving countrys labour market is available but it is very limited considering the complexity entailed.It is clear that foreign irregular labour damages native workers more than regular foreign labour, but irregularity in employment is very difficult to pursue in countries with a large informal sector. Destination countries should first fight complete illegality in the country and in the job at any cost, and leave the labour office with the responsibility of providing incentives to get a legal job through frequent controls and high penalties.

Immigrant Assimilation in the Labour Market: What Is Missing in Economic Literature

ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyse the characteristics of employed migrants before and after the beginning of the recession in Italy to understand whether the economic crisis has exacerbated or reduced the high segmentation of the Italian labour market, with foreign workers largely concentrated in low-paid and low-quality jobs, even when highly educated. The analysis looks separately at male and female migrants because of strong gender specialisation, with the female component highly concentrated in the homecare and healthcare sectors, and the male component mainly employed in the manufacturing and construction sectors. We inquire how employment, working conditions, and wages have changed before and after the crisis in the sectors and occupations, where foreign workers are concentrated with respect to the other sectors and occupations of the Italian economy. We conclude that the disadvantage of being in a segmented labour market nevertheless allowed for positive growth of foreign employment during the recession, but it implied an even greater segregation in terms of low-skilled, unstable, and poorly paid jobs.

Wage assimilation of immigrants and internal migrants: the role of linguistic distance

“Opening up new legal migration channels” to respond to economic needs for labour is one of the four priorities of the European Commission for its upcoming European Agenda on Migration. The EU approach to legal labour migration has, to date, been very fragmented and limited. It has focused, indeed, on specific categories of potential legal migrants: highly-qualified, intra-corporate transferees, seasonal workers or students and non-remunerated trainees and researchers. The approach is clearly not up to the challenges posed by the EU labour market prospects and does not integrate, in a comprehensive way, all third-country nationals accessing European labour markets, including family reunification beneficiaries, asylum-seekers and foreign students. The main challenges related to the development of a EU labour migration vision are the following. How to articulate intra-EU mobility and international migration to the EU labour market? How to make EUand Member States legal migration systems and competences compatible? How to ensure that employers can tap workers from a sufficient pool of suitably qualified individuals (and that qualifications obtained abroad are recognized)? And how to reduce international labour matching costs? This policy brief aims to provide some ideas to address those challenges over a mediumto long-term perspective, starting from the EU’s labour market needs and dynamics.

Human resources and innovation: total factor productivity and foreign human capital

This chapter presents the economic approaches to the labour market assimilation of immigrants and the many actors which affect its success. It starts by covering the economic approach to labour market integration at destination and then points to its limitations and attempts to bring the often hidden role of the country of origin into view.