Are They Deterred by Welfare? Digging into the Drivers of Highly Skilled Migrants in Europe

• In Event: 3251 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 6. Drivers and Dynamics of Migration

Abstract

Literature researching the drivers of highly skilled migration (HSM) often prioritizes labor market returns to education and downscales the importance of public welfare. This paper develops an innovative empirical strategy that allows us to see how a selection of pull factors attracts temporary and long-term educated migrants in Europe. To do so, we built a unique longitudinal contextual dataset merging information from the European Labor Force Survey (2000-2014) with selected Eurostat and OECD country indicators. Country fixed effect time series allow us to concentrate on cross-country effects. Our evidence suggests that returns to education attract temporary HSM and long term stayers equally. However, it is also shown that public welfare and taxation operate differently for these two groups and do not deter long-term residents. Our paper proposes revisiting the assumption that HSMs are mere income maximizers. As we argue, long term HSM may well be attracted by generous welfare setups.

Authors

• Hector Cebolla-Boado, UNED

• María Miyar Miyar, Uned