Rennae Cherry, Jacques Poot (p), Matthew Roskruge

As the migrant population of Aotearoa New Zealand grows, understanding the factors that shape migrant integration and resilience is increasingly important. This study examines whether proficiency in te reo Māori is associated with social capital, wellbeing, and economic resilience among overseas-born residents. We frame Indigenous language proficiency not only as symbolic cultural engagement, but as a potential resource for belonging, support, trust, and adaptation in a migrant-built society with a bicultural foundation.
Using pooled New Zealand General Social Survey data for 2016, 2018, 2021, and 2023 accessed through the Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure, we analyse 7,812 migrant respondents, excluding overseas-born respondents of Māori ethnicity. Among them, 714 (9.1%) report at least basic te reo Māori proficiency. Outcomes include a sense of belonging, emotional and practical support, institutional and generalised trust, life satisfaction, material wellbeing, financial comfort, income adequacy, and ease of bill payments. To reduce observable differences between migrants with and without te reo Māori proficiency, we use propensity-score overlap weighting; continuous outcomes are estimated with overlap-weighted OLS, while binary outcomes are estimated using overlap-weighted linear probability models, with logistic average marginal effects and nearest-neighbour propensity-score matching used as robustness checks.
Results show that te reo Māori proficiency is positively associated with social connectedness. Migrant speakers report a stronger sense of belonging and greater emotional support, with weaker but positive evidence for practical support; these patterns are robust to matching. However, the results do not indicate greater economic resilience. Material wellbeing and financial comfort are lower among migrant speakers, while income adequacy and ease of bill payments show no overall advantage. Trust outcomes are mixed: trust in police and courts is lower, while generalised trust and trust in several institutions are not significantly different. Overall, the findings suggest that engagement with te reo Māori is linked to social connection, but not to clear economic advantage. The estimates should be interpreted as partial correlations rather than causal effects.

Prof. Leo Van Wissen (p), Dr. Marianne Tønnessen, Dr. Becky Arnold

Although migration of people with various educational levels is essential for regional development all over Europe, very few European countries have available data at the regional level on migrations by age, sex and educational level.
In this study, we have developed methods for estimating net migration for all EU’s NUTS3 regions by level of education. The methods essentially combine different sources of information together at the national and regional level, using iterative proportional fitting to estimate the educational distribution for regional populations, and demographic accounting principles to estimate the resulting net migration estimates from these population estimates.
We start by estimating the population shares with high, medium and low education in each NUTS3 region, by sex and 5-year age groups. Data from the Netherlands and certain other European countries are used to estimate and test a logit model where explanatory variables are the NUTS2 educational distribution and a regional economic index that includes Gross Regional Product and unemployment as indicators. The model provides prior distributions of educational shares, which through iterative proportional fitting are aligned with existing, partial data. Second, from these population estimates we use demographic accounting principles to calculate net migration from/to each of EU’s NUTS3 regions, by age, sex and level of education. This is done for the 5 year periods 2010-2015, 2015-2020, and for projections up to 2040.

Ms Petra Kézai (p), László Lőrincz

Labour migration has emerged as a defining labour market and demographic challenge of recent decades, carrying substantial implications for workforce availability, demographic sustainability, and public policy. From a human capital perspective, the decision to migrate for work constitutes an investment undertaken with the expectation of future returns.

A growing body of research demonstrates that a substantial proportion of emigrants eventually return to their home country and that this process is shaped by selective mechanisms. Return migration may be positively or negatively selected, depending on migrants’ relative success in the destination country, and can increasingly be understood as part of a deliberate long-term strategy driven by economic, personal, or policy-related factors.

Migrants exhibit diverse demographic profiles and differ substantially in their motivations for migration as well as in their intentions to return. They also vary in their labour market characteristics, particularly with respect to skill level, and across demographic, socioeconomic, and geographical dimensions. This heterogeneity has important implications for labour market outcomes upon return.

Migration poses endogeneity challenges, as younger and more educated individuals are disproportionately likely to emigrate in search of higher returns to their skills abroad. Moreover, meaningful human capital accumulation through migration, including skill acquisition and occupational training, typically requires a sufficiently long duration abroad. Consequently, observed wage premiums among returnees may partly reflect pre-migration advantages.

In our study, we examine Hungarian emigrants and returnees using administrative panel data on employment spells and earnings between 2003 -2022. To identify emigration and return events, we exploit the mandatory registration requirements of the Hungarian social insurance system, which records entries and exits associated with changes in residence and employment status.

To address potential selection bias, we apply propensity score matching to compare returnees with similar non-migrants based on key pre-migration characteristics.

Our paper estimates wage outcomes among returnees and documents a wage premium. We further examine whether skills acquired abroad translate into occupational upgrading upon return.

Our findings indicate that returnees earn about 20–25% less than comparable non-migrants immediately after returning to the labour market. However, this gap is not permanent, as the wage differential between returnees and matched stayers narrows over time. Controlling for demographic and occupational characteristics explains a substantial share of overall wage heterogeneity. The timing of return also appears to be an important factor, consistent with the hypothesis that returns to skills acquired abroad may require time to be recognised in the domestic labour market.

Dr. Ana Beatriz Rocha, Prof. Ricardo Biscaia (p)

his paper examines how labour mobility shapes early‑career wage outcomes for higher education graduates in Portugal, drawing on EUROGRADUATE microdata for the 2016/2017 and 2020/2021 cohorts. Motivated by growing evidence of heterogeneous returns to higher education in massified systems, the study applies internationally established mobility typologies—particularly those of Faggian et al. (2006), Di Cintio and Grassi (2013), and Kazakis and Faggian (2017)—to the Portuguese context. These typologies distinguish between non‑migrants, university stayers, late movers, return migrants, and repeat movers, capturing distinct combinations of home, study, and work regions. This framework is particularly suitable for the Portuguese context, marked both by persistent regional disparities and by a higher education network that, while geographically widespread, varies significantly in opportunities and perceived quality.
Using the Portuguese edition of the EUROGRADUATE survey, the study benefits from detailed information on individual characteristics, academic backgrounds, fields of study, job attributes and regional identifiers at the NUTS III level. Wage equations are estimated for each cohort using a Mincer‑type OLS specification, with hourly wages as the dependent variable. Controls include demographic, academic and job‑related variables, complemented by job‑region fixed effects to capture local labour‑market conditions. Robustness checks rely on alternative regional aggregation and sample restrictions. The analytical samples include 4,757 graduates from 2016/2017 and 5,206 from 2020/2021. Given potential self‑selection into mobility trajectories, results are interpreted as conditional associations.
Preliminary findings indicate that university stayers and repeat movers consistently exhibit a statistically significant wage premium relative to non‑migrants, even after controlling for institutional and regional factors. Contrary to previous international evidence, late movers do not show a significant wage premium in the preferred specifications. Return migrants initially display a wage penalty, although this diminishes after incorporating additional controls. These patterns suggest that mobility trajectories capture mechanisms beyond regional wage premia or higher‑education institution effects, potentially related to labour‑market matching or individual preferences.
Although the empirical work is still progressing, the patterns emerging so far underline the relevance of examining mobility in a more differentiated way. The richness of the EUROGRADUATE dataset—particularly its combination of regional, academic and labour‑market variables—helps shed light on how movements across home, study and work regions shape early‑career wages.