International migration intentions and illegal costs : evidence from Africa-to-Europe smuggling routes
Guido Friebel, Miriam Manchin, Mariapia Mendola, Giovanni Prarolo
Irregular migrants from Africa and the Middle East flow into Europe along land and sea routes under the control of human smugglers. The demise of the Gaddafi regime in 2011 marked the opening of the Central Mediterranean Route for irregular border - crossing between Libya and Italy. This resulted in the immediate expansion of the global smuggling network, which produced an asymmetric reduction in bilateral distance between country pairs across the Mediterranean sea. We exploit this source of spatial and time variation in irregular migration routes to estimate the elasticity of migration intentions to illegal moving costs proxied by distance. We build a novel dataset of geolocalized time-varying migration routes, combined with cross-country survey data on individual intentions to move from Africa (and the Middle East) into Europe. Netting out any country-by-time and pair-level confounders we find a large negative effect of distance along smuggling routes on individual migration intentions. Shorter distances increase the willingness to migrate especially for youth, (medium) skilled individuals and those with a network abroad. The effect is stronger in countries closer to Libya and with weak rule of law.
Year of publication: |
November 2018
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Authors: | Friebel, Guido ; Manchin, Miriam ; Mendola, Mariapia ; Prarolo, Giovanni |
Publisher: |
Bonn, Germany : IZA |
Subject: | international migration | human smuggling | illegal migration | Libyan Civil War | Illegale Migration | Illegal immigration | Theorie | Theory | Illegaler Handel | Illicit trade | Internationale Migration | International migration | Bürgerkrieg | Civil war |
Saved in:
freely available
Extent: | 1 Online-Ressource (circa 35 Seiten) Illustrationen |
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Series: | Discussion paper series / IZA. - Bonn : IZA, ZDB-ID 2120053-1. - Vol. no. 11978 |
Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Type of publication (narrower categories): | Graue Literatur ; Non-commercial literature ; Arbeitspapier ; Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Other identifiers: | hdl:10419/193272 [Handle] |
Classification: | K23 - Regulated Industries and Administrative Law ; K42 - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law |
Source: | ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011950806