Illegal immigration affects not only EU member states at the Mediterranean Sea but also more Northern states due to open internal borders and onward migration. Northern member states may free-ride on border countries’ enforcement efforts, leading to a sub-optimal level of border control. While...

Illegal immigration is a major policy challenge in Europe, in particular in countries on the external border of the EU such as Italy or Spain. However, there are likely to be important effects on the rest of the EU, too, depending on the policies against illegal immigration in border countries....

The eastern enlargements of the European Union (EU) and the extension of the free movement of workers to the new member states' citizens unleashed significant east-west migration flows in a labor market with more than half a billion people. Although many old member states applied transitional...

The twentieth century is commonly acknowledged as the “age of migration”. During the last 100 years population movements have intensified and, more importantly, their structure changed significantly. In terms of the geographical distribution of immigrants the European Union and traditional...

Three decades ago most immigrants to Australia with work entitlements came as permanent settlers. Today the annual allocation of temporary visas, with work entitlements, outnumbers permanent settler visas by a ratio of three to one. The new environment, with so many temporary visa holders, has...

The number of refugees worldwide is now 12 million, up from 3 million in the early 1970s. And the number seeking asylum in the developed world increased tenfold, from about 50,000 per annum to half a million over the same period. Governments and international agencies have grappled with the twin...

Immigrants ascend to citizenship at differential rates in Canada. Why is this so? This paper investigates the economic costs and benefits derived from citizenship to rationalize the differential rates of citizenship ascension. Canadian earnings evidence confirms the sizable economic benefits of...

Based on the current European discussion about immigration policy, this paper gives an overview of central economic consequences of immigration for a host country=s labor market. The most important theoretical arguments are presented and evaluated against the available empirical evidence. The...

This paper investigates Dutch immigrants’ naturalisation decision and how naturalisation affects their employment chances and wages in the Netherlands. The population under consideration consists mainly of refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and former Yugoslavia, and a minority of...

Economists studying the economic behaviour of immigrants have tended to avoid serious interdisciplinary work. I argue that when presented with a particular set of research questions that lend themselves to a utility maximisation framework, an economist will be able to pursue interdisciplinary...