IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp7482.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Migration Experience on Occupational Mobility in Estonia

Author

Listed:
  • Masso, Jaan

    (University of Tartu)

  • Eamets, Raul

    (University of Tartu)

  • Mõtsmees, Pille

    (University of Tartu)

Abstract

The existing literature on return migration has resulted in several studies analysing the impact of foreign work experience on the returnees' earnings or their decision to become self-employed; however, in this paper we analyse the less studied effect on occupational mobility – how the job in the home country after returning compares to the job held before migration. The effect of temporary migration on occupational mobility is analysed using unique data from an Estonian online job search portal covering approximately 10-15% of the total workforce, including thousands of employees with temporary migration experience. The focus on data from a Central and Eastern European country is motivated given that the opening of labour markets in old EU countries to the workforce of the new member states has led to massive East-West migration. We did not find any positive effect of temporary migration on upward occupational mobility and in some groups, such as females, the effect was negative. These results could be related to the typically short-term nature of migration and occupational downshifting abroad as well as the functioning of the home country labour market.

Suggested Citation

  • Masso, Jaan & Eamets, Raul & Mõtsmees, Pille, 2013. "The Effect of Migration Experience on Occupational Mobility in Estonia," IZA Discussion Papers 7482, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7482
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp7482.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ilahi, Nadeem, 1999. "Return Migration and Occupational Change," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 170-186, June.
    2. Alan Barrett & Philip J. O’Connell, 2001. "Is There a Wage Premium for Returning Irish Migrants?," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 32(1), pages 1-21.
    3. Sicherman, Nachum & Galor, Oded, 1990. "A Theory of Career Mobility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(1), pages 169-192, February.
    4. Tommaso Frattini, 2012. "Immigrazione," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, issue 3, pages 363-407, July-Sept.
    5. Jan Saarela & Fjalar Finnäs, 2009. "Return migrant status and employment in Finland," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(5), pages 489-506, August.
    6. Dustmann, Christian, 2003. "Return migration, wage differentials, and the optimal migration duration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 353-369, April.
    7. Campos, Nauro F. & Dabusinskas, Aurelijus, 2009. "So many rocket scientists, so few marketing clerks: Estimating the effects of economic reform on occupational mobility in Estonia," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 261-275, June.
    8. Tiiu Paas & Raul Eamets & Jaan Masso & Marit Room, 2003. "Labour Market Flexibility And Migration In The Baltic States: Macro Evidences," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 16, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    9. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    10. C. Simon Fan & Oded Stark, 2007. "The brain drain, ‘educated unemployment’, human capital formation, and economic betterment1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15(4), pages 629-660, October.
    11. Louka T. Katseli & Robert E.B. Lucas & Theodora Xenogiani, 2006. "Effects of Migration on Sending Countries: What Do We Know?," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 250, OECD Publishing.
    12. Gibson, John & McKenzie, David, 2011. "The microeconomic determinants of emigration and return migration of the best and brightest: Evidence from the Pacific," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 18-29, May.
    13. Neal, Derek, 1999. "The Complexity of Job Mobility among Young Men," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 237-261, April.
    14. Anna Iara, 2006. "Skill diffusion by temporary migration? Returns to Western European working experience in the EU-accession countries," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 0607, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, revised 30 Aug 2006.
    15. George J. Borjas & Bernt Bratsberg, 2021. "Who Leaves? The Outmigration Of The Foreign-Born," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 5, pages 93-104, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Daniela Borodak & Matloob Piracha, 2011. "Occupational Choice of Return Migrants in Moldova," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(4), pages 24-46, July.
    17. Alice Mesnard, 2004. "Temporary migration and self-employment: evidence from Tunisia," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 47(1), pages 119-138.
    18. Anna Iara, 2006. "Skill Diffusion by Temporary Migration? Returns to Western European Working Experience in the EU Accession Countries," Development Working Papers 210, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    19. Javorcik, Beata S. & Özden, Çaglar & Spatareanu, Mariana & Neagu, Cristina, 2011. "Migrant networks and foreign direct investment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 231-241, March.
    20. Oded Stark & C. Simon Fan, 2009. "The Brain Drain, ‘Educated Unemployment’, Human Capital Formation, and Economic Betterment," International Economic Association Series, in: János Kornai & László Mátyás & Gérard Roland (ed.), Corruption, Development and Institutional Design, chapter 7, pages 120-151, Palgrave Macmillan.
    21. Kugler, Maurice & Rapoport, Hillel, 2007. "International labor and capital flows: Complements or substitutes?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 155-162, February.
    22. Calogero Carletto & Talip Kilic, 2011. "Moving Up the Ladder? The Impact of Migration Experience on Occupational Mobility in Albania," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(6), pages 846-869.
    23. Stephan Thomsen & Mick Wittich, 2009. "Which one to choose? New evidence on the choice and success of job search methods," FEMM Working Papers 09022, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    24. Mattoo, Aaditya & Neagu, Ileana Cristina & Özden, Çaglar, 2008. "Brain waste? Educated immigrants in the US labor market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 255-269, October.
    25. Hazans, Mihails & Philips, Kaia, 2011. "The Post-Enlargement Migration Experience in the Baltic Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 5878, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    26. Martin Kahanec & Michael Shields, 2013. "The working hours of immigrants in Germany: temporary versus permanent," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-15, December.
    27. Augustin Coulon & Matloob Piracha, 2005. "Self-selection and the performance of return migrants: the source country perspective," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(4), pages 779-807, November.
    28. C. Simon Fan & Oded Stark, 2007. "The brain drain, 'educated unemployment', human capital formation, and economic betterment," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15, pages 629-660, October.
    29. Andries de Grip & Didier Fouarge & Jan Sauermann, 2010. "What affects international migration of European science and engineering graduates?," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(5), pages 407-421.
    30. Wei Sun, 2013. "The productivity of return migrants: the case of China’s “Sea Turtles”," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-19, December.
    31. Catherine Y. Co & Ira N. Gang & Myeong-Su Yun, 2000. "Returns to returning," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 13(1), pages 57-79.
    32. Kupets Olga, 2011. "Brain Gain or Brain Waste? The Performance of Return Labor Migrants in the Ukrainian Labor Market," EERC Working Paper Series 11/06e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    33. Sabirianova, Klara Z., 2002. "The Great Human Capital Reallocation: A Study of Occupational Mobility in Transitional Russia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 191-217, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Merja Kauhanen & Mari Kangasniemi, 2014. "Migration experience, occupational attainment and subjective perceptions of occupational downgrading," Working Papers 291, Työn ja talouden tutkimus LABORE, The Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jaan Masso & Raul Eamets & Pille Mõtsmees, 2013. "The Effect of Temporary Migration Experience on Occupational Mobility in Estonia," CESifo Working Paper Series 4322, CESifo.
    2. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht, 2011. "Migration and Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 327-439, Elsevier.
    3. Kupets Olga, 2011. "Brain Gain or Brain Waste? The Performance of Return Labor Migrants in the Ukrainian Labor Market," EERC Working Paper Series 11/06e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    4. Laurent Bossavie & Çağlar Özden, 2023. "Impacts of Temporary Migration on Development in Origin Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 38(2), pages 249-294.
    5. Aguilar Esteva, Arturo Alberto, 2013. "Stayers and Returners: Educational Self-Selection among U.S. Immigrants and Returning Migrants," IZA Discussion Papers 7222, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Christian Dustmann & Joseph-Simon Görlach, 2016. "The Economics of Temporary Migrations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 98-136, March.
    7. Dustmann, Christian & Fadlon, Itzhak & Weiss, Yoram, 2011. "Return migration, human capital accumulation and the brain drain," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 58-67, May.
    8. Ismael Issifou & Francesco Magris, 2017. "Migration outflows and optimal migration policy: rules versus discretion," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 16(2), pages 87-112, August.
    9. Jackline Wahba, 2014. "Return migration and economic development," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development, chapter 12, pages 327-349, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Nelly Elmallakh & Jackline Wahba, 2022. "Return migrants and the wage premium: does the legal status of migrants matter?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1631-1685, October.
    11. Marco Di Cintio & Emanuele Grassi, 2016. "The returns to temporary migration: The case of Italian Ph.D.s," EERI Research Paper Series EERI RP 2016/15, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    12. Katarzyna Budnik, 2011. "Temporary migration in theories of international mobility of labour," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 42(6), pages 7-48.
    13. Piracha, Matloob & Vadean, Florin, 2010. "Return Migration and Occupational Choice: Evidence from Albania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1141-1155, August.
    14. Bossavie,Laurent Loic Yves & He Wang, 2022. "Return Migration and Labor Market Outcomes : Evidence from South Asia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10180, The World Bank.
    15. Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2012. "Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 681-730, September.
    16. Amelie F. Constant, 2020. "Time-Space Dynamics of Return and Circular Migration: Theories and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 8053, CESifo.
    17. Tiwari, Smriti, 2021. "Do macroeconomic fluctuations at destination matter in determining migrants’ return decisions?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    18. repec:ilo:ilowps:486369 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Catia Batista & Tara McIndoe-Calder & Pedro C. Vicente, 2017. "Return Migration, Self-selection and Entrepreneurship," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(5), pages 797-821, October.
    20. Ambrosini, J. William & Mayr, Karin & Peri, Giovanni & Radu, Dragos, 2012. "The Selection of Migrants and Returnees in Romania: Evidence and Long-Run Implications," IZA Discussion Papers 6664, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Anna Iara, 2008. "Skill Diffusion by Temporary Migration? Returns to Western European Work Experience in Central and East European Countries," wiiw Working Papers 46, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Central- and Eastern Europe; temporary migration; occupational mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7482. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.