Abstract: The recent so called Mediterranean refugee crisis has ignited concerns about the magnitude of the flows of asylum seekers to Europe. This paper examines the determinants of the destination choice of first time non-EU asylum applicants to the EU, between 2008–2020. It investigates the role played by policies related to employment rights, processing of asylum applications, attractiveness of the welfare system, economic factors and networks on the destination of asylum seekers within the EU. We find that the strongest pull factor for asylum seekers to a destination is social networks both in terms of previous asylum applicants as well as stock of previous migrants. Our findings also suggest that employment bans are not a strong deterrence for asylum seekers given their modest association to asylum flows.

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of the 2016 UK referendum and expecting Brexit on migration flows and net migration in the UK. We employ a Difference-in-Differences strategy and compare EU migration to non-EU migration before and immediately after the UK referendum of June 2016. We also investigate the potential secondary effects of the referendum on non-EU migrants by using different methodologies and various robustness checks. Our results show that after the referendum (i) migration inflows from the EU declined, (ii) emigration of EU migrants increased and (iii) net migration flows from EU countries to the UK fell. Our results are not driven by the potential spillover impacts on non-EU migrant workers. Overall, the findings show that migration in the UK declined after the Brexit referendum, even before any policy change. 

Abstract: This study investigates whether high-skilled migration in a sample of OECD countries fosters technological diversification in the migrants’ countries of origin. We focus on migrant inventors and study their role as vectors of knowledge remittances. Further, we particularly analyze whether migrants spark related or unrelated diversification back home. To account for the uneven distribution of knowledge and migrants within the host countries, we break down the analysis at the metropolitan area level. Our results suggest that migrant inventors have a positive effect on the home countries’ technological diversification, particularly for developing countries and technologies with less related activities around—thus fostering unrelated diversification. 

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of natives’ anti-immigration attitudes on migration flows to EU countries. We use panel data for migration to the EU between 1995-2018. We address the potential endogeneity between public attitudes and migration flows using instrumental variable techniques. We also control for the dependence between the attractiveness of alternative EU destinations. Our findings suggest that there is a negative causal relationship between anti-immigration attitudes and migration inflows to the EU from both EU and non-EU countries; i.e. natives’ hostility discourages immigration. However, the elasticity of immigration to public attitudes is higher than the elasticity of immigration to economic factors for EU migrants.