IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v220y2024icp507-530.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global migration and the role of terrorist attacks

Author

Listed:
  • Foubert, Killian
  • Ruyssen, Ilse

Abstract

This paper analyses how terrorism has shaped global bilateral migration in the past decades. Previous research demonstrates a wide range of psychological and economic effects from terrorism which might serve as a push and/or counter-pull factor for migration and location choice. Yet, the role of terrorism has so far received relatively limited attention in the migration literature. Combining data on yearly bilateral migration rates with data on terrorist activity in 154 countries of origin and destination over the period 1975-2017, we find that terrorism acts both as a push factor for migration and as a repulsive factor for location choice. These results are robust across different specifications, samples and estimation techniques. Our evidence indicates that migration rates respond primarily to variations in the intensity rather than the mere occurrence or frequency of attacks. We find that terrorism induces international emigration only at extreme levels, while modest levels of terrorism are already enough to reduce a countries' attractiveness to potential migrants. Moreover, the effect of terrorist attacks varies across migration corridors.

Suggested Citation

  • Foubert, Killian & Ruyssen, Ilse, 2024. "Global migration and the role of terrorist attacks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 507-530.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:220:y:2024:i:c:p:507-530
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.02.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016726812400060X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2024.02.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migration; Location choice; Terrorism; Violence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • N40 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - General, International, or Comparative

    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:eee:jeborg:v:220:y:2024:i:c:p:507-530. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    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.