Affluent Lives Beyond the Border? Individual Wage Change Through Migration

Abstract

This chapter investigates individual wage changes of German emigrants. The analytical strategy is twofold. First, we compare hourly wage changes among emigrants with wage changes among stayers. We estimate the Difference-in-Difference of mean net hourly wages between stayers and emigrants over time and account for the positive selection of emigrants on observable characteristics through entropy balancing. Second, we explore the heterogeneity of wage changes among emigrants. To that end, we calculate linear regressions on the log net hourly wage change through migration. The first analysis suggests substantial wage increases of 8 euros through migration. The second analysis provides evidence that characteristics of employment and of destination countries account for differences in the wage change among emigrants. Among individual characteristics, only age is negatively correlated, while education and gender do not account for differences. Our analysis rely on the first wave of the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study. The German Socio-Economic Panel Study yields our reference population of stayers.

International migration and its short‐term effect on partnership stability

“…The resulting pressures may imply higher conflict potential (Conger et al, 1999), increasing the stress associated with migration. In the current context, however, the last mechanism appears not so crucial: for German emigrants a wage increase was found independent of gender (Witte & Guedes Auditor, 2021), implying that differences between the two partners may be less likely in this respect. Patterns among remigrants might be different, however, among remigrants it is more often women who are the leading spouses (Amcoff & Niedomysl, 2015).…”

Going Back with Glee: A Case Study of Indonesian Migrant Workers Engaging in Circular Migration

“…Notwithstanding the struggles that plague this trend, a number of driving forces continue to contribute to this phenomenon of "circular migration," or migrant workers returning back to the previous countries in which they were employed. In addition to the hopes of earning higher wages in the country of destination (Witte & Guedes Auditor, 2021), factors such as employment standing and age have a significant impact on the decisions of a former migrant worker to relocate to the country from which they perceived to have obtained better jobs (Thomas, 2019). Similarly, the earnings that migrant workers remit to their relatives in their home countries is typically used to pay off the debts that have been incurred by either (or both) the migrant workers and their families (Bylander, 2020;Guérin & Venkatasubramanian, 2020;Hoang, 2020;Lainez, 2020); and this is very likely to drive migrant workers to re-migrate as both migrant workers and their families are (in many cases) solely dependent on remittances as a means of financial support (Chowdhury & Chakraborty, 2021;Mas'udah, 2020).…”

Is it all about the costs? Cultural distance and adjustment of recent migrants

“…Whereas moving across national borders may involve attractive monetary returns and gains in personal development and competencies (e.g. Gerhards & Hans, 2013;Witte & Guedes Auditor, 2021), such international migrations can also have pitfalls. Even voluntary migration implies significant life changes with acculturative challenges, which can be experienced as stressful and negatively affect individual well-being (Berry, 2006;Kim, 1988;Massey & Akresh, 2006).…”