Do High-Income or Low-Income Immigrants Leave Faster?

Govert Bijwaard and Jackline Wahba

No 7732, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We estimate the impact of the income earned in the host country on return migration of labor migrants from developing countries. We use a three-state correlated competing risks model to account for the strong dependence of labor market status and the income earned. Our analysis is based on administrative panel data of recent labor immigrants from developing countries to the Netherlands. The empirical results show that intensities of return migration are U-shaped with respect to migrants' income, implying a higher intensity in low- and high- income groups. Indeed, the lowest-income group has the highest probability of return. We also find that ignoring the interdependence of labor market status and the income earned leads to an overestimating the income effect on departure.

Keywords: immigrant assimilation; labour market transitions; migration dynamics; competing risks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 F22 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2013-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur, nep-int, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Journal of Development Economics, 2014, 108, 54-68

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Related works:
Journal Article: Do high-income or low-income immigrants leave faster? (2014)
Working Paper: Do High-Income or Low-Income Immigrants Leave Faster? (2013)
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