Return Migration and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from South Asia

Laurent Bossavie and He Wang

No 10180, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Despite the magnitude of return migration from overseas to South Asia, the labor market outcomes of return migrants to this region have been understudied. This paper aims at filling this gap by examining systematic differences between the labor market outcomes of return migrants and nonmigrants in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan using nationally-representative surveys that include information on past migration. Conditional regression analysis is used with a focus on four labor market outcomes: (i) labor force status (ii) sectoral choice (iii) employment type, and (iv) earnings. The paper finds that return migrants are somewhat less likely to be employed than nonmigrants, which is mainly driven by returnees who returned at an older age. As evidenced in other contexts, return migrants in Bangladesh and Pakistan are more likely to become entrepreneurs compared with nonmigrants. Self-employed returnees are also more likely to hire paid employees and to be engaged in non-farm activities, compared with nonmigrant entrepreneurs. Return migrants who become employees earn a small wage premium relative to nonmigrants, compared with contexts where temporary migrants are higher-skilled. The returnee wage premium, however, is larger in the construction sector where most temporary migrants were employed overseas.

Date: 2022-09-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-mig and nep-ure
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