Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:06:03.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Source-Destination Cultural Differences, Immigrants' Skill Levels, and Immigrant Stocks: Evidence from Six OECD Member Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Roger White*
Affiliation:
Whittier College, Dept of Economics
Nicole Yamasaki
Affiliation:
Whittier College, Dept of Economics

Abstract

Examining data for 79 immigrant source countries and six OECD member destination countries during the years 1975–2000, we find that source-destination cultural differences inhibit international migration. We also report that existing immigrant stocks act to offset, at least in part, the migration-inhibiting effects of cultural differences. Employing educational attainment as a proxy for skill, we find variation across low-, medium-, and high-skilled immigrant cohorts both with respect to the cultural distance-migration relationship and in terms of the extent to which existing immigrant stocks offset the influence of cultural differences. Our results appear robust to econometric techniques, sample composition, and endogeneity issues.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The authors thank the editor and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and guidance.

References

Anderson, J. (2011), ‘The gravity model’, Annual Review in Economics, 3 (1, pp. 133–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beine, M.Docquier, F.Schiff, M. (2013), ‘International migration, transfer of norms, and home country fertility’, Canadian Journal of Economics, 46 (4), pp. 1406–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beine, M.Docquier, F.Ozden, C. (2010), ‘Diaspora effects in international migration: key questions and methodological issues’, Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 146 (4, pp. 639–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beine, M.Docquier, F.Ozden, C. (2011), ‘Diasporas’, Journal of Development Economics, 95 (1, pp. 3041.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beine, M.Salomone, S. (2013), ‘Network effect in international migration: does education matter more than gender?’, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 115 (2, pp. 354–80.Google Scholar
Belot, M.Ederveen, S. (2012), ‘Cultural barriers in migration between OECD countries’, Journal of Population Economics, 25 (3, pp. 1077–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bodvarsson, Ö.B.Van den Berg, H. (2009), ‘Why people immigrate: the evidence’, inBodvarsson, Ö.B.Van den Berg, H. (eds), The Economics of Immigration: Theory and Policy, Berlin, Springer, pp. 5977.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Candau, F. (2013), ‘Trade, FDI, and migration’, International Economic Journal, 27 (3, pp. 441–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caragliu, A.Del Bo, C.Groot, H.Linders, G.-J. (2013), ‘Cultural determinants of migration’, The Annals of Regional Science, 51 (1, pp. 732.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'informations Internationales (CEPII) (2012), Gravity Dataset, accessed November 2012. Online: http://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/presentation.asp?id=8.Google Scholar
Cuaresma, J.C.Moser, M.Raggl, A. (2013), ‘On the determinants of global bilateral migration flows’, Working Paper No. 5. WWWforEurope.Google Scholar
Defoort, C. (2008), ‘Long-term trends in international migration: an analysis of the six main receiving countries’, Population (English version), 63 (2, pp. 285317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desmet, K.Le Breton, M.Ortuno-Ortin, I.Weber, S. (2011), ‘The stability and breakup of nations: a quantitative analysis’, Journal of Economic Growth, 16 (3, pp. 183213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreher, A. (2006), ‘Does globalization affect growth? Empirical evidence from a new index’, Applied Economics, 38 (10, pp. 1091–110.”CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreher, AGaston, N.Martens, P. (2008), Measuring Globalization – Gauging its Consequence, New York, Springer.Google Scholar
Grogger, J.Hanson, G. (2011), ‘Income maximization and the selection and sorting of international migrants’, Journal of Development Economics, 95 (1, pp. 4257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guiso, L.Sapienza, P.Zingales, L. (2009), ‘Cultural biases in economic exchange?’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124 (3, pp. 1095–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatton, T.J.Williamson, J.G. (2002), ‘What fundamentals drive world migration?’, CEPR Discussion Paper no. 3559.Google Scholar
Hausmann, R.Hidalgo, C.A.Bustos, S.Coscia, M.Chung, S.Jimenez, J.Simoes, A.Yildirim, M.A. (2013), The Atlas of Economic Complexity: Mapping Paths to Prosperity, Cambridge, MA, The Observatory of Economic Complexity.Google Scholar
Held, M.Muller, J.Deutsch, F.Grzechnik, E.Welzel, C. (2009), ‘Value structure and dimensions: empirical evidence from the German World Values Survey’, World Values Research, 2 (3, pp. 5576.Google Scholar
Hofstede, G. (1980), Culture's Consequences: International Difference in Work Related Values, Beverly Hills, CA, Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R.Baker, W.E. (2000), ‘Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values’, American Sociological Review, 65 (1, pp. 1951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R.Basanez, M.Diez-Medrano, J.Halman, L.Luijkx, R. (eds) (2004), Human Beliefs and Values: A Cross-cultural Sourcebook Based on the 1999–2002 Values Surveys, Mexico City, Siglo Veintiuno Editores S.A. de C.V.Google Scholar
International Organization for Migration (IOM) (2013), World Migration Report 2013 – Migrant Well-being and Development, Geneva: International Organization for Migration.Google Scholar
Kleinert, J.Toubal, F. (2010), ‘Gravity for FDI’, Review of International Economics, 18 (1, pp. 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewer, J.van den Berg, H. (2008), ‘A gravity model of immigration’, Economics Letters, 99 (1, pp. 164–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayda, A. (2010), ‘International migration: a panel data analysis of the determinants of bilateral flows’, Journal of Population Economics, 23 (4, pp. 1249–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, J.F.Moffitt, R.A. (1980), ‘The use of Tobit analysis’, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 62 (2, pp. 318–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nei, M. (1972), ‘Genetic distance between populations’, The American Naturalist, 106 (949, pp. 283–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, P.Pytlikova, M.Smith, N. (2008), ‘Selection and network effects – migration flows into OECD countries, 1990–2000’, European Economic Review, 52 (7, pp. 1160–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruyssen, I. (2013), Determinants of International Migration (Doctoral dissertation, Ghent University).Google Scholar
Spolaore, E.Wacziarg, R. (2009), ‘The diffusion of development’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124 (2, pp. 469529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sprenger, E. (2013), ‘The determinants of international migration in the European Union: an empirical analysis’, Institute for East and Southeast European Studies Working Paper No. 325.Google Scholar
Tadesse, B.White, R. (2012), ‘Do immigrants enhance international trade in services? The case of US tourism services exports’, International Journal of Tourism Research, 14 (6, pp. 567–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinbergen, J. (1962), The World Economy: Suggestions for an International Economic Policy, New York, NY, Twentieth Century Fund.Google Scholar
United Nations (U.N.) (2012), Migration and Human Mobility, New York, United Nations.Google Scholar
White, R. (2010), Migration and International Trade: The US Experience since 1945, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA, Edward Elgar Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, R.Tadesse, B. (2008), ‘Immigrants, cultural distance and US state-level exports of cultural products’, North American Journal of Economics and Finance, 19 (3, pp. 331–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (2012), World Development Indicators, Washington, DC, accessed November 2012, online: http://databank.worldbank.org.Google Scholar
World Bank (2014), World Development Indicators, Washington, DC, accessed April 2014, online: http://databank.worldbank.org.Google Scholar
World Values Survey Association (WVS) (2014), World Values Survey Waves 1–3 1981–1998, Madrid, Spain, accessed April 2014, online: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org.Google Scholar