Intention to Return of Irregular Migrants: Illegality as a Cause of Skill Waste

SERIES Working Paper No. 11

Posted: 24 May 2011

See all articles by Nicola D. Coniglio

Nicola D. Coniglio

Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro” (UNIBA) - Department of Economics and Mathematical Methods

Giuseppe De Arcangelis

Sapienza Università di Roma

Laura Serlenga

Università degli Studi di Bari; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Date Written: 2011

Abstract

In this paper we show that highly skilled illegal migrants may be more likely to return home than migrants with low or no skills when illegality causes "skill waste," i.e. reduced ability of making use of individual capabilities both in the labor and the financial markets. This result is in contrast with common wisdom on return migration, according to which low-skill individuals are more likely to go back home rather than high-skill migrants. The simple theoretical life-cycle framework that shows the former result is tested on a sample of illegal migrants crossing Italian borders in 2003. The estimation results confirm that highly skilled illegal migrants are more willing to return home.

Keywords: Illegal migration, labor skills, skill waste

JEL Classification: F22, C25

Suggested Citation

Coniglio, Nicola D. and De Arcangelis, Giuseppe and Serlenga, Laura, Intention to Return of Irregular Migrants: Illegality as a Cause of Skill Waste (2011). SERIES Working Paper No. 11, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1850722

Nicola D. Coniglio (Contact Author)

Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro” (UNIBA) - Department of Economics and Mathematical Methods ( email )

Largo Abbey St. Scholastica
Bari, 70124
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://www.dse.uniba.it/Corsi/docenti/Coniglio/Nicola_paginaWeb.htm

Giuseppe De Arcangelis

Sapienza Università di Roma ( email )

Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali ed Economiche
P.le Aldo Moro 5
Rome, 00185
Italy
+390649910489 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/a/uniroma1.it?pli=1

Laura Serlenga

Università degli Studi di Bari ( email )

Piazza Umberto I
Bari, 70121
Italy

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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