Do Migrants Facilitate Internationalization? A Review of the Literature

Andreas Hatzigeorgiou () and Magnus Lodefalk
Additional contact information
Andreas Hatzigeorgiou: Örebro University School of Business, Postal: The Ratio Institute, Sveavägen 59, 113 59 Stockholm, Sweden, http://ratio.se/medarbetare/andreas-hatzigeorgiou/

No 2018:11, Working Papers from Örebro University, School of Business

Abstract: How migration relates to internationalization has been a prominent question in international economics for a long time and its relevance for policy has increased with the amplified political focus on migration. But the role of migration for internationalization is not as obvious as the standard theory suggests, and tightening migration could have unexpected consequences for both developing and developed countries. In this paper we review and discuss over 100 papers published about migrants’ role in international trade and foreign direct investment, from pioneering country-level studies to nascent firm-level studies that utilize employer-employee data. To our knowledge, this is the first paper offering a wide-ranging review of the different strands of theory on the relationship between migration and internationalization, as well as new empirical findings. Although the evidence suggests that migration can facilitate internationalization, we also note substantial gaps and inconsistencies in the extant literature. The aim of this paper is to encourage future research and assist policymakers in their efforts to promote internationalization, and better understand the economic effects of changes in migration policy.

Keywords: Migration; networks; information; trade; foreign direct investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D20 D80 F14 F16 F22 F23 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2018-12-06, Revised 2019-12-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-mig and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.oru.se/globalassets/oru-sv/institution ... s2018/wp-11-2018.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2018_011

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Örebro University, School of Business Örebro University School of Business, SE - 701 82 ÖREBRO, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().