Workshop on the Economics of Forced Migration
December 9-10, 2005, Cambridge MA
Admission to the workshop is by invitation only
Main venue: MIT Faculty Club (Building E52 6th Floor)
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list of participants
| PROGRAM | ||
| THURSDAY DECEMBER 8: | ||
| 5.30-7.30 | Reception at Kendall (at the Engine 7 Firehouse) Hotel | |
| FRIDAY DECEMBER 9: | ||
| 8.00-8.30 | Continental breakfast | |
| 8.30-9.00 | Keynote Address: Forced versus Economic Migration in Historical Perspective | |
| Moderator: | Sharon Stanton Russell (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) | |
| Speaker: | Jeffrey G. Williamson (Harvard University) | |
| 9.00-10.30 | Compulsion, Choice and Selection | |
| Determinants and selectivity in four phases of movement among refugees and internally displaced persons: departure, relocation, resettlement and repatriation. Who moves, who stays, who moves on and where do they go? What is the role for economic factors and choice, versus compulsion, at the various stages? | ||
| Moderator: | Josh DeWind (Social Science Research Council) | |
| Speakers: | Ana Maria Ibáñez (Universidad de los Andes) | |
| Will H. Moore (Florida State University) | ||
| “What Have Empirical Models Taught Us About Forced Migration?” | ||
| Discussant: | Ira N. Gang (Rutgers University) | |
| 10.30-11.00 | Refreshment break | |
| 11.00-1.00 | OECD Host Country Policies: | |
| Recognition Rates, Resettlement, State Support and Foreign Aid | ||
| The role of economic factors in OECD host countries’ willingness to recognize asylum seekers and to admit resettling refugees. The influences upon asylum application rates of recognition rates, state support and economic opportunities for those admitted. The political economy of aid to deter inflows of forced migrants. Strategic game playing and off-shore processing. | ||
| Moderator: | Michael Piore (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) | |
| Speakers: | Bruno Deffains and Jenny Monheim (University of Nancy) | |
| “Strategic Asylum Policy Making in Europe.” | ||
| Timothy J. Hatton (Australian National University) | ||
| “Asylum Policies in Europe: Past Present and Future.” | ||
| Eric Neumayer (London School of Economics) | ||
| “Determinants of Asylum Migration and Destination Choice to Western Europe” | ||
| Discussants: | Stephen Castles (University of Oxford) | |
| Riccardo Faini (Università di Roma Tor Vergata) | ||
| 1.00-2.00 | Lunch | |
| 2.00-4.00 | Livelihoods and Remittances: Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons | |
| Economic activities among refugees and internally displaced persons in camps, urban and rural areas of developing countries of first asylum. Remittances to and from refugees. NGO and donor support: food or vouchers? The interactions among these forms of support. | ||
| Moderator: | Frances Stewart (University of Oxford) | |
| Speakers: | Paul Harvey (Overseas Development Institute) | |
| “Cash Based Relief, Remittances and Humanitarian Action.” | ||
| Eric Werker (Harvard Business School) | ||
| "Refugee Camp Economies." | ||
| Helen Young (Tufts University) | ||
| Discussants: | John Harris (Boston University) | |
| Nicholas van Hear (University of Oxford) | ||
| 4.00-4.30 | Refreshment break | |
| 4.30-6.00 | Economic Assimilation of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the OECD countries | |
| Evidence on factors determining labor market integration and welfare dependence of refugees in the higher income countries. The roles of self-selection, host country selection criteria and networks in the prospects for assimilation. The realities of rejected asylum seekers: income prospects after forced repatriation or as irregular migrants. | ||
| Moderator: | Bob Lucas (Boston University) | |
| Speakers: | Kalena Cortes (Princeton University) | |
| “Are Refugees Different from Economic Immigrants? Some Empirical Evidence on the Heterogeneity of Immigrant Groups in the United States.” |
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| Per-Anders Edin and Olof Åslund (Uppsala Universitet) | ||
|
“Refugee Integration in the Swedish Labor Market: |
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| Discussants: | Joshua Angrist (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) | |
| Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah (Institute for Public Policy Research) | ||
| 6.30 | Cocktails + Dinner | |
| Speaker: | Uri Dadush (World Bank) | |
| SATURDAY DECEMBER 10: | ||
| 8.00-8.30 | Continental breakfast | |
| 8.30-10.15 | Economic Impacts on Developing and Transition Economies: | |
| The Effects of Refugee Inflows and Post-Conflict Repatriation | ||
| The impacts of massive refugee inflows upon the country of asylum’s local and national economies: pressures on infrastructure, labor market implications for host country workers and employers, managing induced aid inflows. Re-establishing livelihoods in post-conflict settings: the experiences of forced and voluntary repatriates. | ||
| Moderator: | Irena Omelaniuk (World Bank) | |
| Speakers: | Tom Kuhlman (Wageningen University) | |
| “The Economic Impact of Refugees on Host Countries: Burden or Boon?” | ||
| Fatmata Lovetta Sesay (Ministry of Finance, Sierra Leone) | ||
| “Refugees in Developing Countries: Burden or Benefit?” | ||
| Discussants: | Anna Hardman (Tufts University) | |
| Frances Stewart (University of Oxford) | ||
| 10.15-10.30 | Refreshment break | |
| 10.30-11.45 | Data: Sources, Sampling and Collection | |
| Potential use of existing data sets to identify and study refugees. Sampling frames and alternative sampling techniques for the study of forced migrants and remittances in the OECD countries and in countries of first asylum. Methods of data collection: data reliability and response rates. | ||
| Moderator: | Anna Hardman (Tufts University) | |
| Panel: | Bela Hovy (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) | |
| Karen Jacobsen (Tufts University) | ||
| Fritz Scheuren (National Opinion Research Center) | ||
| 11.45-12.45 | Future Research: Priorities and Potential | |
| Moderator: | Stephen Castles (University of Oxford) | |
| Panel: | Jeff Crisp (Global Commission on International Migration) | |
| Bob Lucas (Boston University) | ||
| Alan Winters (World Bank) | ||
| 12.45 | Closing lunch | |
| NOTE: Michael Cernea was unable to make it to the Workshop, but has kindly allowed us to make his paper available on our website (see below). | ||
| Michael Cernea (George Washington University/World Bank) | ||
| "For a New Economics of Resettlement: A Sociological Critique of the Compensation Principle" | ||
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