Essays on Polish emigration

• Main Author: Rosso, A. C.
• Published: University College London (University of London) 2014
• Subjects: 330
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.626841

The thesis has a focus on Polish emigration in the 90s, providing further evidence of the effects of emigration on the labour markets in the sending countries and on the selection of emigrants both from the sending and destination country's perspective. The second chapter analyses emigration from Poland over a period of 10 years, showing empirically that emigration had a positive impact on the labour market by increasing average wages, but also by increasing wages of the skill groups that experienced the highest emigration outflow. The empirical evidence is supported by a simple economic model, according to which wages are determined by the country's production technology that distinguishes between different skill groups, and change as a consequence of the relative change of the supply of labour of a skill group. The third chapter studies the selection of Polish emigrants from the sending country towards two of the main destination countries: the United Kingdom and Germany. Selection of emigrants is explained through the difference in wage inequality in the destination versus the source country. The predictions of the theoretical model are supported in the data and emigrants to the UK are negatively selected with respect to non-emigrants in terms of unobservable characteristics. When considering education, emigrants are more positively selected (against the model's predictions). For Germany, the empirical results do not confirm the prediction of the model and selection is likely to be the product of the immigration policies in place at the time The fourth chapter provides empirical evidence on the performance of Polish emigrants in the labour market in the destination countries studied in the third chapter. Interestingly, after 2004, despite the high level of education, Polish immigrants performed very poorly in the British labour market, while the average conditions of Polish immigrants in Germany improved.