Refugees’ Self-Selection into Europe: Who Migrates Where?

Europe received about 1.4 million refugees and irregular migrants in 2015 and 2016. The extent of these mostly unregulated inflows into EU territory has left policymakers in the dark about the characteristics and motives of these recent immigrants.

How do the reasons for migrating differ between refugees and (irregular) economic migrants? How are the recent flows of refugees and migrants selected from the source populations in terms of educational and demographic characteristics? These questions have important implications for the design of integration and development policies.

Some answers will be provided at the next MEDAM Seminar with Cevat Giray Aksoy, Principal Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Cevat Giray will present recent findings of his joint research with Prof. Panu Poutvaara (ifo Institute) on the self-selection of refugees. Their empirical analysis draws on unique datasets from the International Organization for Migration and Gallup World Polls.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion of the results and possible implications for EU and national policymakers in the area of migration.

Thursday, 28 March 2019, 16:00 – 17:30
Venue: CEPS, 1 Place du Congrès, 1000 Brussels

MEDAM
The Mercator Dialogue on Asylum and Migration is a practical research project aimed at producing informed economic perspectives on migration. With a view to strengthening Europe’s ability to act in this field, MEDAM intends to fill the gaps in policy research on asylum and migration and to develop recommendations for decision-makers at the national and European levels. Funded by Stiftung Mercator, the project brings together researchers from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute in Florence and the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.

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