The Evils of Forced Migration: Do Integration Policies Alleviate Migrants' Economic Situations?

Citation

Falck O, Heblich S & Link S (2011) The Evils of Forced Migration: Do Integration Policies Alleviate Migrants' Economic Situations?. Stirling Economics Discussion Paper, 2011-14.

Abstract
Armed conflicts, natural disasters and infrastructure projects continue to force millions into migration. This is especially true for developing countries. After World War II, about 8 million ethnic Germans experienced a similar situation when forced to leave their homelands and settle within the new borders of West Germany. Subsequently, a law was introduced to foster their labor market integration. We evaluate the success of this law using unique retrospective individual-level panel data. We find that the law improved expellees’ overall situation but failed to restore their pre-war occupation status. This holds implications for the design of integration policies today.

Keywords
Forced Migration; Integration policy; Difference-in-Differences; Germany; Forced Migration Germany; Refugees; Humanitarian assistance

JEL codes

• N30: Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative
• J61: Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
• D04: Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation