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Kolb WT Def.Indd IMISCOE kolb & egbert Economics as an established academic discipline in its own right and migration as an RESEARCH ever-growing field of focus within the social sciences have long snubbed each other. While migration research tends to over-emphasise normative concerns, economics so often limits its scope to a traditional if not wizening sphere of analysis. This volume contains eleven case studies that synergise the expertise of researchers in both fields by transgressing disciplinary boundaries. The studies offer new perspectives by applying ( economic methods to migratory phenomena, by using concepts such as trade and club eds. Migrants and Markets theory to analyse migratory patterns and by viewing market development as integral to the shaping of migrant stocks and flows. ) Migrants Migrants and Markets Perspectives from Economics and Holger Kolb is a Research Associate at the Institute for Migration Research and the Other Social Sciences Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück. Henrik Egbert is a Research Officer and Lecturer in the Department of Behavioral and Institutional Economics at the Justus Liebig University of Giessen. holger kolb & henrik egbert (eds.) “Migrants and Markets is an excellent example of fruitful cooperation among economists, sociologists and political scientists. From the impact Chinese student migration has on the UK and France to varying methodologies for remittance research, the array of topics is testament to how different fields can mutually enrich each other.” Thomas Straubhaar, Director of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics and Professor of Economics at the University of Hamburg “A stimulating collection of interdisciplinary essays that examines the economic impacts of migration on host societies. A real gem thanks to its critical stance on the methodological superiority complex that economics has had for too long.” Jeanne Batalova, Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute, Washington, D.C. 978 90 5356 684 8 · .. A MSTERD a M U NIVERSITY P RESS Migrants and Markets IMISCOE is a Network of Excellence uniting over 500 researchers from various institutes that specialise in migration studies across Europe. Networks of Excellence are cooperative research ventures that were created by the European Commission to help overcome the fragmentation of international studies. They amass a crucial source of knowledge and expertise to help inform European leadership today. Since its foundation in 2004, IMISCOE has advanced an integrated, multi- disciplinary and globally comparative research programme to address the themes specified in its name, short for: International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe. IMISCOE members come from all branches of the economic and social sciences, the humanities and law. The Network draws from existing studies and advances innovative lines of inquiry key to European policy- making and governance. Priority is placed on developing a theoretical design to promote new research and offer practical alternatives for sound policy. The IMISCOE-Amsterdam University Press Series was created to make the Network’s findings and results available to researchers, policymakers, the media and the public at large. High-quality manuscripts authored by IMISCOE members and cooperating partners are published in one of four distinct series. Research Reports Dissertations Textbooks The RESEARCH series presents empirical and theoretical scholarship addres- sing issues of international migration, integration and social cohesion in Eur- ope. Authored by experts in the field, the works provide a rich reference source for researchers and other concerned parties. The REPORTS series responds to needs for knowledge within IMISCOE’s mandated fields of migration research. Compiled by leading specialists, the works disseminate succinct and timely information for European policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders. The DISSERTATIONS series showcases select PhD monographs written by IMISCOE doctoral candidates. The works span an array of fields within studies of international migration, integration and social cohesion in Europe. The TEXTBOOKS series produces manuals, handbooks and other didactic tools developed by specialists in migration studies. The works are used within the IMISCOE training programme and for educational purposes by academic insti- tutes worldwide. IMISCOE Policy Briefs and more information on the Network can be found at www.imiscoe.org. Migrants and Markets Perspectives from Economics and the Other Social Sciences Edited by Holger Kolb and Henrik Egbert IMISCOE Research Cover illustration: Islamic supermarket on Herenstraat in Leiden Photograph: Roger Dohmen/HH Cover design: Studio Jan de Boer BNO, Amsterdam Layout: The DocWorkers, Almere ISBN 978 90 5356 684 8 e-ISBN 978 90 4850 135 9 NUR 741 / 763 © Holger Kolb and Henrik Egbert / Amsterdam University Press, 2008 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright re- served above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or in- troduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the authors of the book. Table of Contents Introduction Migrants and Markets: Perspectives from Economics and the Other Social Sciences Holger Kolb and Henrik Egbert 7 The Impact of Immigration on the Labour Market: A Survey Christian Lumpe 20 Investigating the Economic Impact of Immigration on the Host Country: The Case of Norway Mete Feridun 46 The Exit Option of Labour Migration from East to West Germany: Individual and Contextual Determinants of Unemployed Workers’ Geographic Mobility Michael Windzio 56 How Recent Amendments in German Immigration Law Affect Decisions: The Case of Polish Doctors Simon Fellmer 81 Educational Selectivity and Labour Market Attainment of Jewish Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel and Germany in the 1990s Irena Kogan and Yinon Cohen 104 States as Clubs? The Political Economy of State Membership Holger Kolb 120 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chinese Student Migration in Europe: A Migration That Nobody Objects To? Wei Shen 147 Assessing Interdependencies between Sector Structures and Labour Migration: A Comparative Study of the British and the German Health Sectors Kirsten Hoesch 168 Workers’ Remittances and International Risk Sharing Metodij Hadzi-Vaskov 189 Skills and Remittances: The Case of Afghan, Egyptian and Serbian Immigrants in Germany Florin-Petru Vadean 203 The Impact of Migration on Foreign Trade in Bolivia Gustavo Javier Canavire Bacarreza and Laura Ruud 224 List of Contributors 242 Introduction MIGRANTS AND MARKETS: PERSPECTIVES FROM ECONOMICS AND THE OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES Holger Kolb and Henrik Egbert Both the title of this book and the introduction suggest an idea to which the authors in this volume and many scientific authors, but not everyone from the academic discipline of economics, would fully sub- scribe. It implies that ‘social sciences’ is an umbrella term that consti- tutes a superset of disciplines, of which economics in turn is one. However, there is also an alternative interpretation of economics that the editors and authors in this book view rather critically and which re- cently has been gaining supporters among economists. In this inter- pretation there is a sharp division between economics and the social sciences that classifies both disciplines as something rather different. A further analysis of the relationship between economics and the other social sciences, with a special emphasis in the area of migration stu- dies, was the main aim of the conference at which most of the papers in this volume were presented.1 The assumed primary difference between both perspectives is of a methodological nature. Economists who subscribe to the interpretation of economics as being something different from the other social sciences consider their discipline’s methodology to be scientifically ac- curate; contrary to many social sciences such as sociology, political science or anthropology, economics is not limited to providing only an- ecdotal evidence, but possesses the capacity to provide ‘hard facts’ and precise analyses. In this approach, economics resembles the natural sciences and should be understood rather as a kind of ‘economic me- teorology’: based on (often very particular) assumptions, the models al- low medium-range predictions of future economic developments to be made. According to this perspective, economics refers to the scientific disci- pline dealing with the subject of the economy, and its analyses are re- stricted to those fields that define economy in the proper meaning of the term. Pies (1998: 2) used the metaphor of an ‘allotment garden col- ony’ to criticise this interpretation. Many economists subscribe to this understanding of a ‘landscape of science’ as such a colony, concentrat- ing their work on the cultivation of that allotment garden that is (mis-) interpreted as the economic one, claiming exclusive responsibility for 8 HOLGER KOLB AND HENRIK EGBERT the economic realm while at the same time abstaining from any ana- lyses outside the alleged economic sphere. One consequence of this re- ductionism is that any topics and research questions that do not evi- dently belong to the economic sphere never appear on the monitors of economists and thus are not considered as relevant research topics.2 There is an alternative interpretation of the relationship
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