IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/psewpa/halshs-00587710.html

Immigration policy and self-selecting migrants

Author

Listed:
  • Milo Bianchi

    (PJSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

I build a simple theory of self-selection into migration and immigration policy formation. I show that any immigration policy affects immigrants skill composition, and this effect may drive the policy outcome in the receiving country. For example, restricting immigration when it is low skilled may worsen immigrants' self-selection and thus the receiving country skill distribution. Hence, understanding the migration decision becomes crucial for analyzing the political economy of immigration. By this composition effect, some natives may support further restrictions even though current immigrants are not harmful for them, and immigration restrictions may be optimal even in a purely utilitarian world.

Suggested Citation

  • Milo Bianchi, 2008. "Immigration policy and self-selecting migrants," PSE Working Papers halshs-00587710, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00587710
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00587710v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00587710v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Bertoli, Simone & Dequiedt, Vianney & Zenou, Yves, 2016. "Can selective immigration policies reduce migrants' quality?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 100-109.
    2. Olof Ejermo & Yannu Zheng, 2018. "Liberalization of European migration and the immigration of skilled people to Sweden," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Stark, Oded & Byra, Lukasz & Casarico, Alessandra & Uebelmesser, Silke, 2017. "A critical comparison of migration policies: Entry fee versus quota," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 91-107.
    4. Michael S. Rendall & Susan W. Parker, 2014. "Two Decades of Negative Educational Selectivity of Mexican Migrants to the United States," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 421-446, September.
    5. Albert MILLOGO & Ines TROJETTE & Nicolas PÉRIDY, 2021. "Are government policies efficient to regulate immigration? Evidence from France," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 53, pages 23-49.
    6. Milo Bianchi & Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Pinotti, 2012. "Do Immigrants Cause Crime?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(6), pages 1318-1347, December.
    7. Peter Huber & Julia Bock-Schappelwein, 2013. "The Impact of Migration Policy on Migrants’ Education Structure: Evidence from Austrian Policy Reform," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 1, pages 1-21, March.
    8. Sara Binassi & Giovanni Guidetti & Mariele Macaluso & Giulio Pedrini, 2021. "Assessing selection patterns and wage differentials of high-skilled migrants. Evidence from Italian graduates working abroad," QUADERNI DI ECONOMIA DEL LAVORO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(113), pages 83-115.
    9. Peter Huber & Julia Bock‐Schappelwein, 2014. "The Effects of Liberalizing Migration on Permanent Migrants' Education Structure," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 268-284, March.
    10. Mariele Macaluso, 2022. "The influence of skill-based policies on the immigrant selection process," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 595-621, July.
    11. Giordani, Paolo E. & Ruta, Michele, 2013. "Coordination failures in immigration policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 55-67.
    12. Simone Bertoli & Hillel Rapoport, 2015. "Heaven's Swing Door: Endogenous Skills, Migration Networks, and the Effectiveness of Quality-Selective Immigration Policies," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(2), pages 565-591, April.
    13. Stark, Oded & Casarico, Alessandra & Devillanova, Carlo & Uebelmesser, Silke, 2012. "On the formation of international migration policies when no country has an exclusive policy-setting say," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 420-429.
    14. Giorgio Bellettini & Carlotta Berti Ceroni, 2007. "Immigration Policy, Self‐selection, and the Quality of Immigrants," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 869-877, November.
    15. Vikhrov Dmytro, 2013. "Welfare Effects of Labor Migration," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp491, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    16. Milo Bianchi, 2013. "Immigration Policy and Self-Selecting Migrants," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 15(1), pages 1-23, February.
    17. Cirillo, Marinella & Cattaneo, Andrea & Miller, Meghan & Sadiddin, Ahmad, 2022. "Establishing the link between internal and international migration: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    18. Escamilla-Guerrero, David & López-Alonso, Moramay, 2023. "Migrant Self-Selection and Random Shocks: Evidence from the Panic of 1907," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(1), pages 45-85, March.
    19. Milo Bianchi & Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Pinotti, 2008. "Immigration and crime: an empirical analysis," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 698, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • 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
    • O24 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy

    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:hal:psewpa:halshs-00587710. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.