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The psychic costs of migration: evidence from Irish return migrants

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  • Alan Barrett
  • Irene Mosca

Abstract

Within the economics literature, the ‘psychic costs’ of migration have been incorporated into theoretical models since Sjaastad (J Polit Econ 70:80–93, 1962 ). However, the existence of such costs has rarely been investigated in empirical papers. In this paper, we look at the psychic costs of migration by using alcohol problems as an indicator. Rather than comparing immigrants and natives, we look at the native-born in a single country and compare those who have lived away for a period of their lives and those who have not. We use data from the first wave of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing which is a large, nationally representative sample of older Irish adults. We find that men who lived away are more likely to have suffered from alcohol problems than men who stayed. For women, we again see a higher incidence of alcohol problems for short-term migrants. However, long-term female migrants are less likely to have suffered from alcohol problems. For these women, it seems that migration provided psychic benefits, and this is consistent with findings from other research which showed how migration provided economic independence to this group. The results remain when we adjust for endogeneity and when we use propensity score matching methods. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Alan Barrett & Irene Mosca, 2013. "The psychic costs of migration: evidence from Irish return migrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 483-506, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:26:y:2013:i:2:p:483-506
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-012-0438-4
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    9. Vivian Kraaij & Ella Arensman & Philip Spinhoven, 2002. "Negative Life Events and Depression in Elderly Persons," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(1), pages 87-94.
    10. Barrett, Alan, 1999. "Irish Migration: Characteristics, Causes and Consequences," IZA Discussion Papers 97, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    5. Barrett, Alan & Mosca, Irene, 2012. "Exploring the Early-life Causes and Later-life Consequences of Migration through a Longitudinal Study on Ageing," IZA Discussion Papers 6878, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Zaiceva, A. & Zimmermann, K.F., 2016. "Migration and the Demographic Shift," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 119-177, Elsevier.
    7. Jiang, Hanchen & Yang, Xi, 2019. "Parental Migration, Investment in Children, and Children's Non-cognitive Development: Evidence from Rural China," GLO Discussion Paper Series 395, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Oliver Falck & Alfred Lameli & Jens Ruhose, 2018. "Cultural biases in migration: Estimating non‐monetary migration costs," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 97(2), pages 411-438, June.
    9. Ruhose, Jens & Falck, Oliver & Lameli, Alfred, 2014. "The Cost of Migrating to a Culturally Different Location," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100327, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
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    11. Bharadwaj, P. & Doiron, D. & Fiebig, D. G. & Suziedelyte, A., 2020. "Psychological Costs of Migration: Home Country Natural Disasters and Mental Health," Working Papers 20/03, Department of Economics, City University London.
    12. Eiji Yamamura, 2017. "Identity, nostalgia and happiness among migrants: The case of the KÅ shien High School Baseball Tournament in Japan," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 792-813, December.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Return migrants; Older adults; Ireland; Alcoholism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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