predicted in countries with highly unequal income distributions where there are major barriers to migration (need many resources), there will be high positive selection on education.

Because in countries with high levels of income inequality the well educated would see high returns on their training

argued that immigrants who face the greatest barriers to migrating will be the most positively selected;

in addition, immigrants who respond to push factors will be less positively selected than those who respond to pull factors

argued that the positive selection of migrants accounts for their better performance in the labor market, compared to natives

Note: Although many scholars contend that legal migrants are likely to be more positively selected than illegal one, empirical evidence suggests that even undocumented migrants are positively selected

Heaven’s Door

Chapter 1: Reframing the immigration debate

- 10 “symptoms” of the immigration debate

1. Absolute number of current immigrants at an historic peak (although US population larger too)

2. Relative skills/economic performance of immigrants has declined

3. Immigrant earnings lag

4. Change in nation of origin (1950s: majority Europe and Canada, 1990s: latin America and Asia)

5. Immigrants effects on wages/economic opportunities for elast-skilled US workers (negative effects diffused all over US)

6. Effects in specific states with more generous welfare

7. Small measurable economic gains (cheaper goods and services diffused over all consumers, but difficult to measure)

8. Ethnic skill differentials do not close across generations

9. Ethnic capital (skills of entire group spill over to individuals)

10. Ethnic ghettos (like black ghettos) foster urban underclass

Chapter 2: The skills of immigrants

- Immigrants of 1960 less likely to be hs dropouts than natives; immigrants of 1998 almost 4 times as likely to be hs dropouts than native born

- These lower skill levels are accompanied by a widening wage gap upon entry to US

- However, we must consider that wage inequality in general has increased since 1980s (deunionization of American labor force, skill biased technology change (ex: introduction of PC increases the productivity of skilled workers more than unskilled), globalization of economy, etc.)

- We also must consider whether economic assimilation is a good thing

- Acquiring skills valued by US employers is good because it places less burden on the welfare state by reducing immigrant underclass, but the more immigrants look like US natives, the less natives benefit (complementary perspective)

Chapter 4: Labor market impact of immigration

- In the short run, low-skilled immigrants drive down wages of low skilled native borns and perhaps increase wages of complementary workers, but in the longer run concentrated immigration benefits capitalists (relocate to immigrant heavy cities) and causes native borns to migrate within US

- One methodological problem is that it’s difficult to tease apart whether immigrants cause economic improvements, or if they’re attracted to cities with growing economies

Chapter 5: Economic benefits from immigration

- Borjas argues that African Americans are biggest losers with regards to immigration because:

- Employers are the primary beneficiaries of immigration, but Blacks own small share of capital stock and are thus less likely to be in hiring class

- Immigrants compete with blacks in low-skilled labor market

Chapter 6: Immigration and the welfare state

- More recent immigrants more(less?) likely to use welfare

- Longer immigrants are in US, the more likely they are to use welfare (better knowledge of the US welfare system)

- Inconclusive evidence about whether immigrants “pay their way” or not

- Important to keep in mind that throughout discussions of assimilation and comparison of immigrants by date of entry, most analyses use repeated cross-sections and not longitudinal data

-Must think about who isn’t represented in these samples

Chapter 10: The goals of immigration policy

- Several potential strategies for selecting immigrants: family ties (current US emphasis), country of origin (past US emphasis), SES characteristics (Canadian points system), refugees

- Discussion of open market for visas (sliding scale for price based on sending country GDP): would increase skill level (although employers seeking less skilled workers would likely find ways around this), but there are moral issues (should liberty be for sale)

- Borjas acknowledges that evaluating immigration from a “what are the economic benefits for the US” perspective is only one way

Chapter 11: Proposal for an immigration policy

- Borjas argues that the US should adopt a policy that favors skilled workers (higher skilled pay a larger proportion of their income as taxes, are less likely to be on welfare, and increase productivity of US firms)

- Argues in favor of a points system

- More diversity in immigrant sending countries could reduce ethnic enclaves

The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World.” Chs. 1, 2, 4, and 6.

Ch.1: Introduction

- Since 9/11, population movements have been viewed with much more scrutiny

- Very difficult to tell how many international migrants there are in the world

- A report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicated that the number of migrants doubled between 1965 and 2000, from 75 million to 150 million

- Over 2% of the world’s population has lived outside its national borders for at least 12 months

- Most likely there has been a remarkable upsurge in illegal migration in recent decades, but again, it’s difficult to tell

Certain general tendencies of world migration in recent years include. . .

 - The globalization of migration; i.e. the tendency for more and more countries to be affected by migration

- The acceleration of migration in all major regions of the world

- The differentiation of types of migration (labor, refugees, family reunification, etc.) within the same country at the same time

- The feminization of migration; i.e. women migrating not only for family reunion, but also as labor migrants (major example: Filipino women to Middle East)

- The growing politicization of migration

Ch. 2: The migratory process and the formation of ethnic minorities

3 main theories of why people migrate

1. Economic (push-pull) theories suggest that certain factors compel people to leave one area while certain pull factors attract them to another

- Push factors include demographic growth, low living standards, lack of economic opportunities, and political repression

- Pull factors include demand for labor, availability of land, economic opportunities, and political freedom

- Economic theories have been criticized as too individualistic; empirical studies cast doubt on hypothesis that individuals migrate to maximize economic utility

2. Historical-structural theories suggest that rich capitalist countries exploit poorer countries by recruiting their cheap, foreign labor

3. Migration-systems theory takes an interdisciplinary approach and suggests that migration is the result of macro-level structures (such as a history of colonization or trade between 2 countries) interacting with micro-level structures (such as individual desire for economic gain, informal networks of friends and community members, etc.)

Emergence of discourse on transnationalism

- Globalization and improvements in technology have led to immigrants becoming attached to both new home and country of origin

- In light of transnationalism, migrants will likely maintain closer ties to countries of origin in the future

Discourse on the formation of ethnic minorities

- Minorities are created by their subordinate position in society and a sense of collective consciousness

Ch. 4: Migration to developed countries since 1945

 3 major migratory flows 1945-1970

 1. Migration of workers from the European periphery to Western Europe, often through “guestworker systems”

 - For instance, France and West Germany recruited temporary foreign workers

2. Migration of colonial workers to former colonial powers

 - For example, Irish in GB and N. Africans in France

3. Permanent migration to North America and Australia, at first from Europe and later from Asia and Latin America

 - Often migration flows began with temporary recruitment (ex: Bracero system of recruiting Mexicans to do agrarian labor in California and Texas) but migrants settled permanently

- One common feature of migratory movements 1945-1970 is the predominance of economic motivations

Since 1970 many shifts have occurred in migratory trends, including. . .

- Transition of many Southern and Central European countries from places of emigration to places of immigration

- In Italy, foreign workers increased from 300,000 to 1.4 million 1981-2001

- Recruitment of foreign labor by oil-rich countries

- Increasing international mobility of highly qualified personnel

- Proliferation of illegal migration and legalization policies

- Attempts in the US to limit migration (primarily from Mexico) have included measures such as high fences, video surveillance and border patrol, and denying welfare benefits to illegals

Replacement migration in Western Europe is a big issue at the turn of the century

- UN population report in 2000 suggests that extremely high levels of immigration would be needed to achieve replacement levels in most countries

Ch. 6: Next waves: The globalization of international migration

- Objective of chapter is to describe current trends in international migration to, from, and within the Arab, African, and Latin American regions

Arab region

- Morocco and Turkey have largest population of expatriates living in the EU

 - Many Arab workers from poorer regions flock to the oil industry in Libya, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE

 - Gulf War transformed Iraq from region to immigration to one of emigration

 - Some, but much smaller, migration of Arabs to non-oil producing states

Africa

- Africa has the world’s most mobile population

- Migration often a way to escape poverty/starvation

- Many zones have freedom of movement policies, but depending on political environment migration may or may not be tolerated

Latin America and the Caribbean

- 4 areas of migrants:

Southern cone w/ Europeans,

Andean with Indians and mestizos,

Latin America with Indians and mestizos, a

nd Caribbean with Africans

- Seasonal labor migration very common

- Poor economies in the 1980s ->immigration to the US, Canada, and Europe

“Educational selectivity in US immigration: How do immigrants compare to those left behind?” Demography, 42(1), 131-152.

find that positive selection exists for all except Puerto Rican migrants. Find some evidence that people who come from farther coutnries are more positively selected but no consistent trends by gender

2 reasons why we should care about the selectivity of migrants

1. May affect the composition of remaining population in home country (ex: brain drain)

2. May affect how well immigrants and their children adapt in the US

Theories of immigrant selectivity

- 6 “levels” that could potentially affect immigrant selectivity

1. Self-selection

2. Country-level exit policies (ex: China, Soviet Union)

3. Political and economic conditions in sending country

4. Demand for certain types of labor in receiving country

5. Historical relationship between sending and receiving country

6. Receiving country’s immigration policy (quotas)

- Many people believe that immigrants are negatively selected; move to new land because of economic hardship back home

- Academic scholars tend to believe the reverse; individuals who migrate are more ambitious and/or have higher SES than those left behind

- Chiswick (1978) argued that the positive selection of migrants accounts for their better performance in the labor market, compared to natives

- Although many scholars contend that legal migrants are likely to be more positively selected than illegal one, empirical evidence suggests that even undocumented migrants are positively selected

- Lee (1966) argued that immigrants who face the greatest barriers to migrating will be the most positively selected; in addition, immigrants who respond to push factors will be less positively selected than those who respond to pull factors

- Massey (1999) argued that although migrants tend to be positively selected initially, they become less highly selected over time as successive waves migrate from a particular country

- Migration becomes less costly over time due to accumulation of social capital by those left behind

Research question #1: How does the education of migrants compare to those of nonmigrants in home country?

Results: For all countries except for Puerto Rico, migrants more educated than nonmigrants

- Also finds that migrants from countries with highly unequal income distributions are less positively selected, but only in countries where there are no major barriers to migration (for instance, Indians tend to be highly selected despite large inequality because only the well-off have resources to move)

- Borjas predicted that this would be the case because in countries with high levels of income inequality the well educated would see high returns on their training

Research question #2: What factors are related to educational selectivity?

- Highly educated populations have less educational selectivity (could be due to ceiling effect)

- Increased inequality -> decreased educational selectivity

Research question #3: How is selectivity related to changes in the regional origins of migrants?

- No significant findings

Research question #4: How has the educational selectivity of migrants changed over time?

- Looks at data from Mexico only

- Finds evidence for increased selectivity between 1960 and 1970 (end of Bracero program?)

- Since 1970, difficult to tell whether educational selectivity has decreased or stayed the same

4 characteristics of determining migration   

1. characteristics of origin

2. characteristics of destination

3. obstacles

4. personal factors