Joint International Economics - UNU-CRIS Seminar by Flor Vandevelde on Relocating the Dream: Substitution of Aspirations after Emigration Bans

Over the past two decades, several South-East Asian countries have imposed bans on the emigration of individuals (mainly women) as domestic workers. These bans are often destination-specific, targeting migration to the Middle East. Public cases of abuse and poor working conditions in these countries have led governments to take drastic steps to protect their citizens. Using the case of the Philippines, this paper explores two central questions. First, do people internalize these bans in their migration aspirations? In other words, do bans influence aspirations to migrate to banned destinations? Second, if so, how are aspirations reoriented? Do other countries experience increased immigration pressures, or do previously aspiring migrants decide to stay in the Philippines? We estimate a model that is more adequate than the standard multinomial logit model to simulate substitution patterns, the cross-nested logit model. 

This is a closed event. For further information, please contact Pascale Vantorre at pvantorre@cris.unu.edu