Does unemployment cause return migration? …

a summary of the effects of labour market dynamics on return migration from the Netherlands published in NORFACE MIGRATION Discussion Paper No. 2011-7

To what extent does unemployment affect the decisions of migrants to return to their home
country?

Does unemployment lead immigrants to departure?

Does re-employment increase the chance of immigrants to stay? How does the effect vary by the duration of unemployment and re-employment spell?


Key Points

• The majority of recent labour immigration to the Netherlands is temporary. • British immigrants are the largest recent labour immigrant group in the Netherlands. • Across all labour immigrant groups, unemployment shortens the migration duration. • Becoming employed after a spell of unemployment delays return migration for all migrants except for those from the new EU countries (mainly Poland). • Length of unemployment has a substantial effect on the return decision, while the effect of immigrant characteristics is relatively small.

Read ESRC Centre for Population Change - Briefing 1 - June 2011 (PDF 4pp)

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