Labour market performance and migration flows - European ...

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European CommissionOccasional Paper 60, Volume Ithrough the impact on the demand for labour in family-run activities which is determined by the use ofremittances to finance small-scale productive investments (see Section 9.1 on this second channel). Todate, no economic study has been undertaken to gauge the relevance of either of these two channels inAMCs, as the endogeneity of remittances with respect to labour-market conditions in the migrantsendingareas prevent us from drawing any conclusion on the causal relationship between remittancesand prevailing wages and level of unemployment from the analysis of bivariate relationships.Figure 7.1. Remittances and unemployment rates in the Egyptian governorates161412unemployment rate10864200 2 4 6 8 10 12remittances per capitaSource: authors’ elaboration on UNDP (1998) and FarguesFigure 7.1 has been obtained using data on the remittances or savings of return migrants fromKuwait and Iraq to Egypt after the Gulf War in 1991, combined with local data on theunemployment levels from the UNDP (1998) Report on Egypt. 107 The figure suggests that theunemployment rate is higher in the Egyptian governorates that receive more remittances per capita.One could reasonably assume that an external and stable source of income, such as remittances, islikely to discourage participation in the labour market in a context where there is a very highunemployment level, as in the AMCs. Thus, a high unemployment rate could drive migration, andthe ensuing flow of remittances, so that one should not regard Figure 7.1 as providing evidence ofthe adverse effect of remittances on labour market participation, given that a causal relationshipcould run in both directions.7.4 Social remittances and behaviourThe impact of migration on prevailing behaviour in the labour market is mediated by its impact oncultural attitudes, as the work by Hilal (2007) on the effects of male migration in the labour market107 We are fully aware that we should have related remittances to participation rather than to the unemployment rate; still,we maintain that even the relationship depicted in Figure 7.1 is informative: if we account for the possible negative impact ofremittances on the participation rate, then the positive relationship that we depict in the figure would have been evenstronger.138
Chapter IIThe impact of migration on labour markets in Arab Mediterranean countriesparticipation of women in Palestine demonstrated (see Section 7.1). Male migration out of Palestineseems to have reinforced the diffusion of a conservative role for women in Palestinian society, whichis backed up by old religious interpretations, which also manifests itself through changes in the formsof women’s dresses (Hilal, 2007). Clearly, social remittances can differ widely depending on thedestination countries of migrants, and Hoodfar (1996) addresses the question of whether Egyptianmale migration represents a “’Feminization of Egyptian families’ or a reaffirmation of traditionalgender roles”, as migration to the Gulf countries could lead to cultural changes along the linesdescribed by Hilal (2007) for Palestine. 108De Haas (2006) argues that, at the Todgha oasis in Morocco, the change in social structures and theemancipation of subordinated groups through migration have led to the neglect of some traditionalactivities, which were regarded as having a low social status.Demand side of the labour market8. Consumption patterns8.1 Actual migration and consumption patternsThe evidence of the impact of migration on consumption patterns in AMCs is regrettably limited,though this could be substantial and not limited to the impact on private demand that arises because ofremittance transfers. Labaki (2006) focuses on the demand for consumption goods by Lebanesemigrants, which allow domestic producers to broaden the basket of goods that they export, with anensuing job-creation effect in the sectors that produce so-called ethnic goods, and in the trade sector.Similarly, Khelfaoui (2005) demonstrates that that the exports of Algerian products towards Canadahas increased because of local demand on the part of the Algerian Diaspora there, which has alsocontributed to the development of communication facilities, and the increasing use of Internet due tothe frequent contacts between emigrants and their families.Conversely, de Haas (2007) emphasizes the impact on the demand for labour in the tourism sectorin Morocco, as migrants who have a legal residence permit in the country of destination returnhome for their holidays. Along the same lines, Labdelaoui (2005) argues that tourism hasdeveloped in Algeria as a result of the visits of emigrants during their holidays, and that this isbecoming a matter of interest for the Algerian authorities.8.2 Return migrants and consumption patterns.No empirical evidence has been gathered to see whether return migrants represent a relevant channelof transmission of consumption models from the countries of destination to AMCs.However, we can advance a hypothesis based on the age of returnees: in section 3.2 we presumedthat the transmission of consumption models through return migrants is more important the lowertheir age. Data from the MIREM project indicate that returnees in Maghreb countries are quiteyoung: their average age is between 36 and 45 years. This is confirmed – for Tunisia – by theresults of a survey on population and employment carried out in 2006, according to which the108 The transfer of cultural norms does not run just in one direction: the paper by Antecol (2000) analyzes the gender gaps inlabour force participation rates across different migrant groups in the United States, and she finds that half of the variation infertility behavior across first-generation immigrants is explained by the gender gap which prevails in the home country, whilecultural assimilation is greater for the second- and third-generation of immigrants. This suggests that limited effects upon thelabour market of migrant-sending countries can be expected in the early phases of a migration episode, while these effectsclearly build up over time.139
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STUDYLABOUR MARKETS PERFORMANCE AND
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Chapter IFinal Report 15 MILLION NE
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