Two neglected categories of immigrants to Canada: temporary immigrants and returning Canadians

Results are presented from an attempt to improve Canadian statistics on international migration so as to comply with U.N. guidelines by including data on long-term residents with temporary status and Canadian citizens and permanent residents returning from abroad. "The estimation procedures involve extensive operations on three Canadian administrative data systems: the Visitors Immigration Data System of Employment and Immigration Canada; the Family Allowances Files of Health and Welfare Canada; and the Customs and Excise Files of Revenue Canada. These data are used to produce the number of immigrants in both of the neglected categories, as well as to calculate the geographic (origin and destination) and demographic (sex, age, marital status) structures of these groups. Results of the analysis of estimates for the period 1982-1988 show that, due to their size and characteristics, both of these neglected categories of immigrants constitute a significant part of immigration to Canada, and their importance has and will continue to increase over time."     

Legal versus illegal U.S. immigration and source country characteristics

"Based on micro data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on legal immigrants as well as on legalization applications that followed the passage of IRCA [the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986], this study exploits the variation in legal and illegal immigration flows across seventy source countries to examine the sensitivity of immigration flows to underlying source country characteristics. The study finds that earnings in the source country and the distance from the United States form significant deterrents of both legal and illegal immigration flows. We also find that illegal immigration is more sensitive to such factors than is legal immigration." The impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on U.S. immigration from Mexico is also assessed.     

Immigration quotas,World War I,and emigrant flows from the United States in the early 20th century

Little is known about international return migration because governments rarely track out-migrants. However, one exception occurred early in the 20th century when the United States kept records of emigrants. Using within-country changes in quota allocations in 1921, 1924, and 1929 in combination with 1908–1932 data on specific countries of intended destination of the emigrants, we estimate the effect of quotas on (1) out-migration rates, (2) emigration across skill groups, and (3) the duration of temporary migrants' stays in the U.S. Higher quota restrictions reduced emigration rates, mostly for unskilled laborers and farmers. Higher quota restrictions also increased duration of stay, as the share of migrants staying less than 5 years fell and the share staying 5 to 10 years rose. Return migration behavior was also associated with changes in previous immigrant cohort's networks and savings. Return migration rates were also low during World War I, and more significant population losses from the War in home countries discouraged return migration. Finally, out-migration of German migrants increased substantially during the 1920s.     

Collusion and combines in Canada, 1880–1890

ABSTRACT

It is a little-known fact that Canada adopted its own antitrust law one year before the landmark Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Anti-Combines Act of 1889 (‘the Act’) was adopted after a decade in which ‘combines’ (the Canadian equivalent of ‘trusts’) had grown more numerous. From the combines’ numbers, Canadian historians, legal scholars, and economists have inferred that consumer welfare was hindered. However, price and output evidence has never been marshalled to provide even a first step towards assessing the veracity of this inference. This paper undertakes that task. I highlight the fact that the output from industries accused of collusion increased faster than national output in the decade before the passage of the Act and that their prices accordingly fell faster than the national price index. I argue that these findings militate for the position that the origins of Canada's Anti-Combines Act were partially rooted in rent-seeking processes similar to those that American scholars have found driving the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.     

Real Wages in Australia and Canada, 1870–1913: Globalization versus Productivity

Australia's and Canada's real wage experiences between 1870 and 1913 were distinctive. Faster productivity growth underpinned Canada's overtaking of Australia's wage levels. The globalization forces of migration and trade also shaped their comparative wages, principally by reducing wage growth in Canada. Immigration increased slightly Australia's real wages, but reduced wage levels in Canada, and tempered there the beneficial effects of rising productivity and improving terms of trade. In contrast, wage earners' share of national income rose after 1890 in Australia, with the productivity slowdown hitting chiefly rents and profits. Distributional shifts favouring wage earners in Australia, and the depressing effects of mass immigration on wages in Canada, limited Canada's wage lead before 1914, despite her faster productivity growth.     

Immigration and the Health of U.S. Natives

Immigration may put a strain on the health care system, adversely impacting the health of the native population. At the same time, recent studies have documented the role of immigration in nudging native workers from risk-intensive, physically demanding jobs toward occupations that require more communication and interactive ability, potentially improving their health. In this article, I examine the relationship between immigration and the health of the native population in the United States. The results of the analysis fail to show that immigration adversely affects the health of U.S. natives. Instead, the findings suggest that the presence of low-skilled immigrants may improve the health of low-skilled U.S.-born individuals.     

The link between immigration and trade: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Immigration and Trade: Evidence from the United Kingdom. — This paper investigates the link between immigration and trade using recent UK data. Immigration from non-Commonwealth countries is shown to have a significant export-enhancing effect. By contrast, immigration from Commonwealth countries is found to have no substantial impact on exports. We conjecture that this could be because immigrants from the UK’s former colonies do not bring with them any new information that can help substantially reduce the transaction cost of trade between their home countries and the host nation. The study also reveals a pro-imports effect of immigration from the non-Commonwealth countries, whereas immigration from the Commonwealth appears to be reducing imports, perhaps reflecting trade-substituting activities by immigrants.     

Globalisation versus de-coupling: German emigration and the evolution of the Atlantic labour market 1870–1913

The decline of German emigration to the United States after 1895 was precipitate to a degree not matched by other “old immigration” sources. The paper considers possible reasons for this: the effect of land availability, relative growth rates of the US and German economies, and the impact of the so-called “new immigration” from southern and eastern Europe. It concludes that German immigration was unusually affected by competition from newer migrant sources, due to skill similarities and similar patterns of settlement. However, the more rapid growth of the German economy after 1895 and the movement of the land frontier into areas less suited to German agricultural skills also played a part. It shows that the skills possessed by migrants were an important factor in migrant earnings. The arrival in the US of large numbers of immigrants with similar skill endowments and lower reservation wages made emigration to the United States a less attractive option for potential German migrants after 1895.     

Poverty,gender and migrancy: Lesotho's migrant farmworkers in South Africa

During the 1990s, eastern Free State vegetable farmers increasingly relied on migrants from neighbouring Lesotho for seasonal labour. This coincided with a major downsizing of the mine labour force in South Africa, hitherto the major employer of Basotho migrant workers. However, there was no simple process of transfer of unemployed migrants from the mining to the farming sector; rather, decisions were mediated by domestic relationships and household poverty in Lesotho. Basotho women and girls have been a major casualty of mine retrenchments and the drying up of remittances, and those with domestic skills but little formal training have been forced into the labour market, mainly domestic work in towns and labour on farms. This article examines the Basotho migrants' experiences and conditions of employment, the regulatory environment within which they are recruited and employed, and their future in the context of changing immigration and migration legislation in South Africa.     

Resisting the melting pot: The long term impact of maintaining identity for Franco-Americans in New England

Approximately 1 million French-Canadians moved to the United States, mainly between 1865 and 1930, and most settled in neighboring New England. In 1900 almost a fifth of all persons born in French Canada lived in the U.S. These migrants exerted considerable efforts to maintain their language and to replicate their home country institutions, most notably the schooling system, in their new country. For decades, this resistance to assimilation generated considerable attention and concern in the U.S. The concerns are strikingly similar to those often invoked today in discussions of immigration from Hispanic countries, notably Mexico. Mexicans may not be assimilating into mainstream America as European immigrants did. We look at the convergence in the educational attainment of French Canadian immigrants across generations relative to native English-speaking New Englanders and to European Roman Catholic immigrants. The educational attainment of Franco-Americans lagged that of their fellow citizens over a long period of time. By the time of the 2000 Census, they appear to have largely achieved parity. The effects of World War II, especially military service, were very important in speeding up the assimilation process through a variety of related channels: educational attainment, language assimilation, marrying outside the ethnic group, and moving out of New England. Economic assimilation was very gradual because of the persistence of ethnic enclaves.     

Longing for the Blue Sky: Urban air quality and the individual decision to immigrate

Based on China Migrants Dynamic Survey data and the air quality data from China National Environmental Monitoring Centre, we empirically investigated whether immigration decision-making is associated with urban air quality. The empirical results from the Logit model revealed ‘vote by foot’ rule in the immigration decision in China, implying migrants commonly attempt to move to cities with good air quality. We additionally found that among determinants of immigration, air quality was inferior to GDP, industrial structures, wages, and public services. We also observed heterogenous impacts of urban air quality on the individual decision to immigrate by gender, age, education, and migration patterns. Specifically, migrants in female and elderly groups have a stronger desire for good urban air quality, whereas those with high education level have a lower desire for the same. Moreover, urban air pollution decreased the probability of interprovincial migration. Rural migrants were less affected by urban air pollution when immigrating to cities. We finally put forward policy implications to balance labour forces migration and economic development.     

Years of schooling: the Australian experience in comparative perspective

This paper examines why secondary school participation rates have been persistently lower in Australia than in Canada or the United States. The contributions of immigration and apprenticeship have not raised the stock of skills in the adult population to North American levels. Until recently Australians believed, for a variety of reasons, that secondary schooling was needed by only a minority of students. Supply constraints have also been important, as Australians experienced lower growth rates of income, and larger and more sustained increases in the school–age population.     

移民网络与贸易创造效应

本文基于移民网络变量考察了中国与28个样本国的双边贸易流,通过标准模型(STD)和成本对称模型(STC)的识别发现,3组指标(累积规模、相对规模和技能型移民网络)较一致表明移民网络对中国对外贸易具有积极贡献;研究还发现移民网络的成本克服效应在新兴经济体(拉美和非洲)更为显著,即移民网络更为稀缺;而贸易创造的移民消费偏好效应在亚洲和北美更为突出,表明华侨移民集聚规模的重要性。     

PEOPLING THE VICTORIAN GOLDFIELDS: FROM BOOM TO BUST, 1851–1901

Victoria experienced a surge of migration after the discovery of gold in 1851. I explore the social and geographic background of migrants lured to the colony by opportunities opened up by gold mining. When alluvial gold was exhausted, the skills of migrants enabled them to exploit the more difficult deep lead and quartz reef gold deposits and to establish cities and towns. Urban growth was encouraged by high marriage and birth rates in the 1860s. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century goldfields communities generally suffered economic and demographic declines.     

Does immigrant employment matter for export sales? Evidence from Denmark

Immigration impacts on the economy in ample ways: it affects growth, wages and total factor productivity. This study deals with the effects of immigration on firm exports. Can firms benefit from hiring immigrants to expand their export sales? Or do immigrants who live in the firm’s region affect trade? In contrast to the existing literature, we are able to distinguish these two distinct channels. Using matched employer-employee data from Denmark for the years 1995–2005, we provide novel insights in the nexus between exports and immigration. We further contribute to the literature by providing first evidence on the adjustment of firms’ product portfolio in response to immigration. Our empirical results are consistent with the claim that immigration lowers barriers to trade. Both, regional immigration and foreign employment matter for the composition of firm-level exports. As a novel insight, our findings suggest that firms benefit from immigration in terms of expanded export sales, when they hire foreign employees. We only find weak evidence for the local presence of foreigners to increase export sales, which we ascribe to the conjecture that at least some trade-cost reducing forces of immigration like for example intercultural knowledge or personal and business networks abroad, can only be accessed or exploited via foreign employment.     

Immigration and the public transfer system: Some empirical evidence for Switzerland

Immigration and the Public Transfer System: Some Empirical Evidence for Switzerland. —The paper deals with the distributional effects of immigration into Switzerland. The cross-section analysis for 1990 shows that the presence of resident foreigners has not put additional strain on the public purse. On the contrary, there was a favourable financial effect for the native population. The analysis reveals how important the age and qualification of the household head and the number of children in the household are. By including both monetary and real public transfer payments a compre-hensive account of the budget effects of immigration is given.     

Modeling the age and age composition of late 19th century U.S. immigrants from Europe

Using panel data on 12 European source countries that are followed for 26 years (1873-1898), this paper studies age-specific emigration rates and the age composition of U.S. immigration. Two age groups are the focus of attention, 15-40 and over 40. Emigration-rate models and compositional models that satisfy adding-up conditions are estimated by the Hausman-Taylor Instrumental Variable approach. Younger migrants responded more strongly to job opportunities than to wage differentials, whereas older migrants responded more strongly to wage differentials. Both age groups tended to follow recent past migrants to the U.S. Relatively many younger (and relatively fewer older) migrants came from countries with higher percentages of their work forces in agriculture. Higher source-country birthrates discouraged younger migrants, presumably by raising the cost of family migration.     

加拿大《就业保险法》简介及评价

加拿大的失业保险是由联邦政府统一在全国实施的强制性社会保障制度,作为加拿大社会保障制度的核心内容,受到加拿大政府的格外重视,1996年加拿大对1971年的《失业保险法》重新修订后,改为《就业保险法》,反映了政府由单一的收入支持转向收入支持和鼓励就业双管齐下的立法意图,     

Migration,FDI, and Welfare

We investigate migration and foreign direct investment (FDI) for a small trading economy. Historically, immigration in small countries has been accompanied by FDI inflows (complementary capital movements). Based on the skill composition of migrants, empirical evidence finds that skilled immigration is accompanied by FDI inflows but unskilled immigration is accompanied by FDI outflows (substitutable capital movements). We prove that the Heckscher-Ohlin model cannot reconcile these apparently contradictory observations. We introduce a theoretical model in which capital and unskilled labor are sector specific, and demonstrate that this model can reconcile the historical and empirical observations on migration and FDI.