Global migration and mobility

African Migration Pressures: Root Causes and Cooperative Policy Responses

Description: As an important force of development in both sending and destination regions, migration forms a top-priority issue in the global policy debate. In order to assess the impact of future migrant flows and to develop appropriate policies to manage them, knowledge of their size, composition and distribution is crucial. The project will provide a deeper understanding of the root causes of migration with a specific focus on the role of financial incentives and constraints. In particular, we will focus on Central, Eastern and Western Africa and analyze people’s capacity to respond to economic, climatic and political shocks by migrating either internally or internationally. Based on the expected allocation of future migrants across destinations delivered by the first objective, we will then disentangle for which countries new international arrangements on migration are the most pressing and which type of agreement or partnership (intra- or interregional) is most suited for which countries.
Promoter(s): Ilse Ruyssen
Researcher(s): Sara Salomone
Department / Research group:Department of Economics 
Faculty: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Human mobility in the face of major environmental problems

Description: As an important force of development in both sending and destination regions, migration forms a top-priority issue in the global policy debate. In order to assess the impact of future migrant flows and to develop appropriate policies to manage them, knowledge of their size, composition and distribution is crucial. The project will provide a deeper understanding of the root causes of migration with a specific focus on the role of financial constraints. In particular, we will analyze people’s capacity to respond to severe environmental problems by migrating either internally or internationally. Based on the expected allocation of future migrants across destinations delivered by the first objective, we will then disentangle for which countries new international arrangements on migration are the most pressing and which type of agreement or partnership (intra- or interregional) is most suited for which countries.
Promoter(s): Ilse Ruyssen
Researcher(s): Els Bekaert
Department / Research group: Department of Economics
Faculty: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

The impact of terrorism on migration intentions and patterns

Description: In this project, we will analyse the influence of terrorist attacks on worldwide migration. First, we empirically investigate the extent to which terrorist attacks act as a push factor for emigration and as a deterring factor for immigration by reducing potential destination countries' attractiveness. To do so, we will make use of cross-country data since 1980 which allows to identify also heterogeneous effects across different types of countries (e.g. depending on countries' development level). Second, we combine individual-level survey data on migration intentions (internal and international) with regional information on terrorist attacks which garantuees a more accurate identification of the connection between migration behavior and individual exposure to terrorism and the mechanisms at play (e.g. income or psychological). We will also explore to what extent the results vary with individual or household characteristics.
Promoter(s): Ilse Ruyssen
Researcher(s): Killian Foubert
Department / Research group: Department of Economics
Faculty: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration