Research Project D06

Migration and poverty

Project Manager: Marek Kupiszewski

The project is implemented under the management of Professor Oded Stark and Dr. Maja Micevska of the University of Klagenfurt.

The problem of poverty and its links to other economic, political and social phenomena belong to the most complicated socio-economic issues today. It is quite obvious that both poverty and its linkages with other economic phenomena can be influenced by various policies of the country they are observed in, as well as by international programs, e.g. aimed at combating poverty (especially in the less developed countries). It is, however, not straightforward that these phenomena are also affected by policies of other countries, i.e. that poverty and its potential linkages with other phenomena in one country are subject to externalities of other countries' policies. As an example of such externality, this study offers an analysis of the impact that migration policy of the neighbouring countries can have on the development of the society and consequently on the level of poverty in Poland.

A perception widely held both within and outside economics is that while it is presumably true that those who choose to move are better off as a consequence of their move, the "problem of migration" arises within the sending economy (those who stay behind): mobility can generate negative externalities, which migrants do not, and indeed cannot take into consideration when choosing what is individually optimal for them. A frequent policy response to these externalities has been either an attempt to constrain migration and mobility as a means of avoiding the externalities, or a direct effort to eliminate them.

A major purpose of the research is to unravel analytical and empirical relationships that will give rise to new policy designs: casting migration as a policy tool for inducing the formation of a socially optimal level of human capital. Migration can be interpreted as, and often is, a response to, or an escape from, poverty. The research inquires how migration can be turned into a policy instrument for alleviating poverty and increasing social welfare (both at origin and at destination). The proposed research seeks to develop a solid theoretical foundation that would serve as a sound base for policy design.