Since 1960, Western European
countries have transformed from net emigration to net immigration
countries. Policy makers have typically reacted to the perceived
increasing migration pressures through the implementation of
restrictive immigration policies. However, the effectiveness of
such policies has been widely contested. This raises two
fundamental questions: what are the root causes of South-North
migration and to what extent and in what way do policies affect
migration flows independently of root causes and network effects?
However, in order to statistically study the causes and effects
and to determine the effect of policies while controlling for
contextual social and economic variables in sending and receiving
countries – which is seldomly done –, we need time series data on
migration flows on origin-by-destination group level. Here, we are
confronted with a striking lack of comparable time series data on
migration flows in European countries. In order to solve this
problem, this project aims to bring together a wealth of
high-quality migration data on a long time-range from diverse
sources, which will hopefully contribute to the proper analysis of
migration determinants.
Researcher: Hein de Haas
Research assistant: Bart Loman
