Migration and Integration

Overview

Duration: 07/2018-12/2022

Agenda

This project studies economic or betterment migration from the points of view of both destination country citizens and immigrants. Using controlled laboratory experiments, the project team aims to answer three research questions:

1) Do destination country citizens vote for policies which reduce the benefits immigrants receive from the state, and how do these decisions affect immigrants’ willingness to integrate into the labor market?

2) Do destination country citizens vote for policies which make it costly for potential migrants to relocate to the destination country, and how do these decisions affect poor countries’ citizens’ willingness to migrate and integrate into the labor market?

3) Do destination country citizens vote for costly policies which make it impossible for potential migrants to relocate to the destination country, and how does the availability of such policies affect poor countries’ citizens’ willingness to migrate and integrate into the labor market?

The research questions will be investigated using laboratory experiments designed to yield empirical evidence on how discriminatory policies against economic migrants causally affect the willingness of those migrants to participate in the labor market, and how migrants’ behavior causally affects citizens’ policy choices.

Project updates

2022-07-19 | Kerstin Mitterbacher presents "Redistributive policies and migrants’ labor market choices" at the International Conference on Social Dilemmas in Copenhagen.
2021-09-22 | Kerstin Mitterbacher presents study 1 at the GfeW meeting in Magdeburg.
2021-07-20 | "Labor market choices of migrants and redistributive policies" published in the working paper series of the School of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Graz.
2021-02-18 | First experimental session for study 2.
2020-10-23 | First pilot experiment for study 2.
2020-01-22 | Kerstin Mitterbacher receives 2-year research grant (DOC stipend) from the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
2019-11-15 | Start of experiments to study whether citizens vote to reduce social security payments to migrants, and how the latter react to this vote.
2019-07-09 | Kerstin Mitterbacher presents project, GUSEGG Summer School, University of Graz, Austria.
2019-03-08 | Kerstin Mitterbacher presents project, 3-Minute-Thesis competition, University of Graz, Austria.
2018-07-12 | First discussions about commencing experimental research into Migration and Integration.