Tiiu Paas (p), Maryna Tverdostup

Authors: Maryna Tverdostup, Tiiu Paas. In most of the developed countries, labor market returns of foreign-born population are significantly lower, relative to native-born. However, immigrants’ wage level and employment tend to improve gradually with immigration tenure. This paper provides the first evidence on the convergence of immigrants' cognitive skills over time spent in a host country. We discuss that cognitive abilities are crucial components of individual human capital, strongly associated with an improvement of labor market performance. Based on the Program of International Assessment of Adult Skills (PIAAC) data for 15 European countries, we document that on average foreign-born respondents achieve substantially worse scores in literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology rich environment test domains. However, our analysis shows that observed gap in cognitive skill declines over time of host-country stay. We observe that one standard deviation increase in host-country stay (corresponding to approximately 15 years in our sample) is associated with respective 6%, 7% and 4% increases in literacy, numeracy and problem solving scores of immigrants. We also document an increasing positive association between cognitive skills and earnings of foreign-born population over years since immigration. However, despite positive dynamics of immigrants’ cognitive abilities over time spent in the host-country, immigrants who stay almost all their lives in a host country are still often performing worse than natives. This evidence suggests that policies tackling integration issues have had so far a limited influence on improvement of actual skills and competences of immigrants.

Yuval Fisher (p), Eran Feitelson, Sigal Kaplan

In the age of globalization, economic volatility, and high mobility, cities see increasing trends in both inbound and outbound migration waves. Because creative class Millennials and ‘digital natives’ are important human capital, and are characterized by high geographic mobility, their retention is of great interest. Previous studies show that inter-urban migration decisions are affected by place attachment and social norms, in addition to economic considerations and place amenities. This study builds on Hirschman (1970) theorem stating that dissatisfied individuals have the choice between aborting and being proactive to improve the situation. Formerly, the model focused on migration to escape poverty or political conflicts, whereas this study examines the theorem in the context of inter-regional migration of young knowledge-workers. We address the role of perceived community resilience and participation in virtual community life in improving social place attachment, and their impact on migration intentions. Over the last three decades, Jerusalem, our case study, suffers from out-bound migration of knowledge-workers. However, certain virtual and local communities help increase the sense of community and solidarity. We examine the virtual community of 15,000 people residing in the intimate neighborhood of 'Nachlaot'. The vibrant discourse in this group covers requests and offers for sharing tools, offering service and assistance, information exchange, cultural and social events. It also serves as a platform for discussing local issues, e.g. street cleanliness, parking, and collective actions addressing municipal policies. The activity in the group enhances social cohesion and remedies the alienation often felt by residents of big cities. We analyze data from a web-based survey among 500 residents. We elicit intensions to either migrate from the city or settle in, demographic information, virtual community engagement (posting on different issues and attending local events organized by members), place attachment (cognitive, affective, and behavioral), and attitudes regarding tolerance and inclusiveness, municipal governance, place amenities, hyper-diversity, and coolness. We employ structural equation models combining observed characteristics and latent constructs to analyze the data. Results show that: i) people with greater social and political involvement in their communities will be less inclined to migrate; ii) virtual community’s activities increase place identity, the sense of pride and belonging, and social cohesion; iii) the decision to stay or migrate from a city is related the perceived place attachment and community resilience, which, according Leykin et al (2013), is constructed of five community functions: leadership, collective efficacy, preparedness, place attachment and social trust.

Alberto Brugnoli (p), Matteo Matteini

Whether or not governments decide to build physical walls on their borders, walls already exist around each individual migrant, keeping them secluded like in a “dolls’ house”. No physical wall would ever be a deterrent, whether opposed to growing inequalities among people in neighbouring regions.
The “dolls’ house” metaphor depicts the “limiting box” arising around labour migrants and refugees as soon as they undertake their migrations to Europe. The doll’s house consists of five walls enclosing migrants and one open side from which we can watch them live, die or struggle. The enclosing walls are symbolically made of water (the physical divide), fire (xenophobia), air (the digital divide), chalk (the education divide) and paper (the financial divide). The open wall entails the attitude of western audience to witness the “world changing” ongoing migration events like a 24 hour news channel, only worried about keeping their backyard safe, but missing out on what is actually at stake.
The doll’s house definition uses the imagery of an unrealistic and privileged seclusion that paradoxically can also depict what keeps migrants isolated, disadvantaged and ultimately underprivileged in the current European society. It is an unprecedented event because it co-exists with unseen rapid transformations in departure (the brain drain, the circular migrations, the remittance based economy), receiving (ie: the legal framework, the welfare system, social tensions) and nomadic communities (ie: the youth radicalization, the role of social networks).
This paper is a socio-economic investigation on the six sides of the Doll’s house based on available statistical data, data analysis from regional and international think tanks, as well as qualitative first hand materials. It primarily analyses the case in the Lombardy region, creating a benchmark to assess other regions, in order to individuate best practices and new paths for sustainable development policies in the field.