Immigrants’ location choice in Belgium

Abstract

This paper analyses migratory streams to Belgian municipalities between [1994][1995][1996][1997][1998][1999][2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007]. The Belgian population register constitutes a rich and unique database of yearly migrant inflows and stocks broken down by nationality, which allows us to empirically explain the location choice of immigrants at municipality level. Specifically, we aim at separating the network effect, captured by the number of previous arrivals, from other location-specific characteristics such as local labor or housing market conditions and the presence of public amenities. We expect labor and housing market variables to operate at different levels and develop a fixed effects nested model of location choice in which an immigrant first chooses a broad area, roughly corresponding to a labor market, and subsequently chooses a municipality within this area. We find that the spatial repartition of immigrants in Belgium is determined by both network effects and local characteristics. The determinants of local attractiveness vary by nationality, as expected, but for all nationalities, they seem to dominate the impact of network effects.

Network migration: do neighbouring regions matter?

“…This calls for a model that relaxes IIA. One step in this direction is a nested logit model, as applied by Jayet et al (2016). However, a nested logit still imposes IIA within nests.…”

“…2. Some notable exceptions are: Pedersen et al (2008), who estimated the determinants for migration flows to 22 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries; Ruyssen and Rayp (2014), who investigated migration flows between 43 sub-Saharan African countries; Geis, Uebelmesser, and Werding (2013), who analysed the migrants' choice between four OECD countries (France, Germany, the UK and the United States); as well as the single-country studies by Damm (2009Damm ( ), Åslund (2005 and Jayet et al (2016). 3.…”

“…However, for example, Patacchini and Zenou (2012) used networks in neighbouring regions as a proxy for weak ties when estimating the effect of networks on the employment probability. A similar approach is applied by Jayet et al (2016), who focused on directly adjacent locations only. 10.…”

Networks and the location of foreign migrants: evidence for Southern Europe

“…Geographical contiguity or bilateral distance (in km) matrices have been widely used in spatial econometrics as, for instance, in Jayet et al (2010Jayet et al ( , 2016. However, from a wider perspective, the distance separating two provinces could be more than merely geographical.…”

Zuwanderung in Kommunen – Steuerung durch Integrationskonzepte

“…Um neue Zuwanderung zu gewinnen bedarf es nämlich guter Ankunfts-und Aufnahmesowie attraktiver Lebensbedingungen (Berding 2007). Selbstverständlich betrifft dies zunächst einmal ökonomische Faktoren wie Arbeitsplätze, aber auch Wohnraum oder die öffentliche Infrastruktur im Bildungs-und Sozialbereich (Filsinger, M 2017;Jayet et al 2016). Diese Faktoren sind selbstverständlich nur zu einem bestimmten Grad von der Kommunalpolitik beeinflussbar.…”