Where Did Central- and Eastern-European Emigrants Go and Why?

TY - CONF

T1 - Where Did Central- and Eastern-European Emigrants Go and Why?

AU - Pytlikova, Mariola

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - This paper analyses migration flows from 9 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries after the fall of the "Iron Curtain", 1990-2000. Contrary to most of the previous literature, I analyze migration determinants on actual migration flows from the CEE countries into a number of destination countries. Besides economic differences between sending and receiving countries, I include a number of other variables, e.g. language preferences, education, social security pulls and other factors that help to explain migration behavior. My analyses reveal that the economic push/pulls factors play an important role in international migration from those countries. The disaggregated results show that there are large differences between the CEE countries with respect to emigration patterns. The lagged stock of immigrants, which may reflect networks has a strong and positive effect for immigrants from Central European countries, and Romania and Bulgaria, while immigrants from the Baltic countries seem to rely much less on networks. Income gaps have a positive effect on migration flows, particularly from the Southeastern countries, while employment opportunities in destination countries are main determinants of the migration flows from the Baltic and Central European countries.

AB - This paper analyses migration flows from 9 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries after the fall of the "Iron Curtain", 1990-2000. Contrary to most of the previous literature, I analyze migration determinants on actual migration flows from the CEE countries into a number of destination countries. Besides economic differences between sending and receiving countries, I include a number of other variables, e.g. language preferences, education, social security pulls and other factors that help to explain migration behavior. My analyses reveal that the economic push/pulls factors play an important role in international migration from those countries. The disaggregated results show that there are large differences between the CEE countries with respect to emigration patterns. The lagged stock of immigrants, which may reflect networks has a strong and positive effect for immigrants from Central European countries, and Romania and Bulgaria, while immigrants from the Baltic countries seem to rely much less on networks. Income gaps have a positive effect on migration flows, particularly from the Southeastern countries, while employment opportunities in destination countries are main determinants of the migration flows from the Baltic and Central European countries.

KW - International migration

KW - panel data

M3 - Paper

T2 - EALE/SOLE world conference

Y2 - 2 June 2005 through 5 June 2005

ER -