The structure of migration in Estonia: survey-based evidence

This paper presents new evidence from a unique survey of firm managers on migration patterns in Estonia in 2007. An average emigrant from Estonia was most likely a young person between 15-34 years of age, a blue-collar worker and male. Contrary to evidence from other countries and/or earlier time periods, employees with a low level of education were more likely to emigrate than highly educated workers. We assessed which enterprises were more exposed to the crossborder movement of workers. The vast majority (97%) of emigrants left from private sector enterprises. Most immigrant workers were employed by private sector companies as well. Firms hiring a larger share of low-skilled blue-collar workers were more exposed to the mobility of international labour. The regression results indicated that the tendency to emigrate was the strongest among construction sector employees, whereas immigrant workers were most likely hired by manufacturing companies