Wages, integration, migration motivation: cases of export industry employees in Tijuana and Tangiers-Tetouan (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
This chapter investigates the link between the transnational production of goods and migration in the context of export industries in border regions. Recognizing that labor migration in these areas represents a complex interaction between local and global labor markets, commodity chains, as well as internal and international migration networks, this chapter examines the motivations for migrating, options, obstacles and opportunities as experienced by workers in Border Export Industries (BEIs) in two case studies: Tijuana (Mexico) and Tangier-Tetouan (Morocco). Providing a comparison of these two cases, the chapter provides a conceptualization of the phenomenon of migration to and from export-processing areas in border regions based on the concept of migration hub. Further, this chapter outlines a rough typology of migration/migrants from such migration hubs.
The paper wants to understand the assimilation pattern of foreign migrants in Italy. Three novelties characterize this study. First, the research compares the wage assimilation of international migrants with both internal migrants and local natives in Italy, a country with substantial internal and international migration. This comparison, never exploited before, provides indirect evidence for the role played by language and knowledge of social capital in the assimilation of foreign migrants relative to both natives and internal migrants. Second, we inquired into the possible causes of underassimilation by controlling for the date of entry and migrant sector concentration. Third, we model new corrections of the selection bias due to return migration. The correction for the selection bias is introduced in the wage equation through a duration extension of the traditional Heckman correction term and alternatively through a hazard rate correction. The empirical test uses the Italian administrative dataset on dependent employment (WHIP), to estimate a fixed effect model for the weekly wages of males aged 18-45 with controls for selection in return migration and unobserved heterogeneity. The three groups of workers start their careers at the same wage level. But, as experience increases, the wage profiles of foreign nationals and natives, both internal migrants and locals, diverges which seems to hint at the importance of language and social capital. However, sectorby-sector analysis shows that in “migrant intense sectors” internal migrants and locals have the same wage profile as foreign workers. Positive selection in returns reinforces the view that the best leave because they have few career options. Thus under assimilation is caused more by community and job segregation than by a lack of language and social capital: alternatively it is the result of their interrelations.
What Determines Where Transnational Labor Migrants Go? Modifications in Migration Theories
Human Organization, 1994
Three theories that purport to explain where migrants go are set forth, then examined for explanatory validity using data acquired from a study of a relatively affluent rancho in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. The theories include the immigration market, the stage migration, and the network-mediated chain migration theories. It is found that the network mediated migration theory, with modifications including a movement from bilocational to multilocational conceptualizations, has the greatest value in explaining transnational wage labor migration from the rancho to multiple destination points in the US. Migrants may chose to join friends andlor kin in a variety of locations upon their first crossing, and may work in several towns andlor cities in the United States over their migratory careers.
II International Mobility, Migration and Wellbeing Conference & Workshop; Istanbul University, Turkey & Oxford Brookes University, UK - Conference Proceedings Book, 2020
The anthropological study presented herein aims to analyze the current politics of mobility and migration, focusing on the cases of Mexico and Morocco as transit and receptor countries that are currently containing the flows of people who intent reaching the USA or Europe, respectively. This comparative study attempts to create a better understanding of the realities experienced by disadvantaged migrants in transit or stuck in these nations and the most prominent barriers that hinder their social and economic integration at the local level. Moreover, it lends an eye to the gradual emergence of certain feelings, sentiments, subjectivities and personal perceptions that are developed by those experiencing the timeless ephemerality of transit. The methodological framework supporting this investigation was based on qualitative data collected by conducting participant observation and ethnographic fieldwork that provided formal and informal interviews, affording a better comprehension of migrants’ living conditions within marginalized settings, while leaning on certain specificities that characterize the nature of transit contexts in both countries. In addition, by triangulating the information gathered, the study aims to build on the analysis through the inclusion of quantitative data and a relevant theoretical framework, which aim to emphasize the variables within migrants’ experience vis-à-vis personal and social factors that shape the particularities of their migrations such as gender, socioeconomic condition, age, schooling, nationality, skin color, sexual orientation and reasons for emigration. The present study argues that a dialogical relationship binds the politics of mobility and migration and the nature of those barriers to the social and economic well-being of disadvantaged migrants, especially when they get stuck in transit countries, in which integration is unrealistic for many of them. Furthermore, this paper proposes that the hardening of migratory legislations and the new international agreements hindering migrants’ mobility have had detrimental effects on them, while contradicting official discourses spread by Western governments to legitimize their externalized migration politics. Several migrants’ testimonies indicate that the direct benefit to their life conditions tend to be negligible, considering that for many facing such circumstances, it is difficult to integrate in hosting societies, learn the language and access social security. Many migrants underline the impossibility to access employment that could enhance their living conditions or provide the means to reach their desired destinations. Based on migrants’ personal experiences, the results of this research shed light on the impacts and consequences of ever-changing migration and mobility politics in these nations, highlighting the similarities between the two contexts. The findings suggest that the effects of such politics have been deleterious for the integrity of migrants and consolidated local economies of suffering, as disadvantaged migrants look for alternative ways to continue moving, due to the impediments to integration in transit countries that lead to destitution and increase the number of deaths during unauthorized crossings to attempt reaching Europe or USA.
Migration and development: Lessons from the Mexico-US and Morocco-EU experiences
2010
This paper aims to improve the understanding of migration-development links by comparing the evaluation of Mexico-US and Morocco-EU migration over the twentieth century. Despite significant differences, Mexico and Morocco share a common geopolitical location on the global South-North migration frontier as well as their position as prime source countries of predominantly low-skilled migrants into the US and EU. The analysis highlights the large extent to which Mexican and Moroccan migration is determined by political-economic transformations in the US and EU. Persistent economic gaps and migrant networks partly explain why, instead of decreasing migration, the recruitment freezes in Mexico (1964) and Morocco (1973) have contributed to increased reliance on family and irregular migration and a diversification of migration origins and destinations. Simultaneously, policy-driven changes in labour market structure caused an increased demand for casual and informal labour in the service s...
Migration and Economic Globalization: Introductory Remarks
The topics of migration and economic globalization play a crucial role in the analysis and contextualization of the nexus between migration and development; they also extend to policymaking and its implications, and the many questions that arise when addressing all these issues: What impact does increasingly globalized market integration have on international migration? To what extent are labor markets themselves becoming internationalized? Under what conditions could trade and migration become complementary forces or even substitute one another? To what extent can neoclassical economic equilibrium models predict the consequences of factor mobility and trade for wage differentials? Why do societies that have opened up to world markets exhibit different degrees of growth or reduction of international migration? Can diasporas’ home country investments counter the effects of current export-led development strategies, which foster emigration because of their reliance on low-wage labor, and lead to economic activities that would retain native workers or even attract the return of emigrants? Might this process be different for skilled versus unskilled laborers?
International migration and the integration of labor markets
2003
International Migration and the Integration of Labor Markets * This paper is concerned with the determinants and consequences of intercontinental migration over the past four centuries. It begins with a review of the history of primarily transAtlantic migration to the New World during the period of Colonial settlement. The contract and coerced migration from Europe and Africa gave way, from the 18 th century, to an era of free European migration. The period 1850 to 1913 was one of mass migration, primarily from Europe to North America and Oceania and from parts of Asia (primarily India, China and Japan) to other parts of Asia, Africa and the New World. World wars, immigration restrictions and the Great Depression resulted in a period of low international migration (1913 to 1945). In the post-World War II period international migration again increased sharply, but with changes in the nature of the flows, and under the constraints of immigration controls. Europe joined North America and Oceania as a major destination, as did the oil producing Arab countries bordering the Persian Gulf. The paper then explores the reasons for this international migration. Important factors include the relative wages in the origin and destination, the cost of international migration, the wealth to finance the investment, chain migration (kinship and information networks), as well as government subsidies to and restrictions on the free flow of people. The impact of international migration is explored in the context of a two-factor and a threefactor aggregate production function. Implications are developed for the aggregate (average) impact, as well as for the impact on the functional and personal distributions of income. The gainers and losers from international migration are considered. With insights on impact, a political economy approach is used to analyze the determinants of immigration controls. The influence on policy of gainers and losers from immigration was mediated by institutional change and by interest group politics. The long run relationship between globalization and international migration is explored.
Theoretical approaches to Mexican wage labor migration
Latin American Perspectives Vol. 20, No. 3, 1993
When residents of a rural village or rancho develop a tradition of international wage labor migration, networks composed of kin and friends enable even those with limited material resources to migrate (Durand and Massey, 1992; unauthorized distribution.
Wage assimilation: migrants versus natives
2013
BACKGROUND Italy is a country of recent foreign immigration with a long history of internal migration. Concerns about economic integration addressed in the past flows of southern natives to the north and now the international migrants, who are crucial in an ageing society. OBJECTIVE This paper studies the assimilation pattern of foreign migrants in Italy by comparing wage profiles for foreign nationals with both locals and internal migrants. Possible causes of under-assimilation are analysed by controlling for macro economic conditions at entrance into the labour market and for labour market segmentation. METHODS WHIP data are used to estimate a fixed effect model for the weekly wages of males aged 18-45. Controls for selection for return migration are introduced through a duration extension of the traditional Heckman correction term and alternatively through a hazard rate correction. RESULTS The three groups of workers start their careers at the same wage level. But, as experience increases, the wage profiles of foreigners and the two groups of natives diverge. The analysis shows that the concentration of foreign nationals in "migrant intense sectors" is the primary reason for lack of assimilation. We also find positive selection in returns for foreign workers: the more skilled are more likely to leave Italy because of the lack of opportunities in terms of career upgrading. CONCLUSIONS Under assimilation of foreign workers in the Italian labour market is essentially caused more by job segregation than by a lack of language knowledge and social capital endowment or by the macro economic conditions faced at entrance into the labour market.
Migration, Wages and (un)Employment
COGITO (Sciences Po Scientific Newsletter), 2020
Labour economics classically predicts that wages are determined by supply and demand. Theoretically, if demand remains constant, emigration should increase wages in countries of origin (decreasing labour supply) and decrease wages in receiving countries (increasing labour supply). A malthusian vision of the economy also assumes that the arrival of new-comers in a market of limited jobs will leave some workers without employment or drive previously employed ones out of their jobs. The view that immigration decreases natives’ wages and generates unemployment are widely held. An alternative theory suggests that immigrants also consume in the destination country, hence increasing local demand, and/or that local production expands, now that additional labor is available. We need to try and empirically distinguish the competing theories from each other. We also need to examine if this is what is happening on empirical grounds at local levels?