1/2009 Martti Randveer and Tairi Rõõm. The structure of migration in Estonia: Survey-based evidence

Working Papers of Eesti Pank. No. 1/2009

Article: Martti Randveer and Tairi Rõõm, „The Structure of Migration in Estonia: Survey-Based Evidence“, Research in Economics and Business: Central and Eastern Europe, Volume 3, No. 1 2011, pp. 25-47.

This paper presents new evidence from a unique survey of firm managers on migration patterns in Estonia in 2007. An average emigrant from Estonia was most likely a young person between 15-34 years of age, a blue-collar worker and male. Contrary to evidence from other countries and/or earlier time periods, employees with a low level of education were more likely to emigrate than highly educated workers. We assessed which enterprises were more exposed to the crossborder movement of workers. The vast majority (97%) of emigrants left from private sector enterprises. Most immigrant workers were employed by private sector companies as well. Firms hiring a larger share of low-skilled blue-collar workers were more exposed to the mobility of international labour. The regression results indicated that the tendency to emigrate was the strongest among construction sector employees, whereas immigrant workers were most likely hired by manufacturing companies.
JEL Code: F22, J61, J62
Key words: immigration, emigration, survey

* The authors are thankful to Brit Veidemann and Maarja Suiste for their excellent research assistance.

Authors' e-mail address: tairi.room@epbe.ee, martti.randveer@epbe.ee

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of Eesti Pank.

1. Introduction
2. Overview of the literature: 2.1. The determinants of migration; 2.2. The structure of migration; 2.3. The duration of migration, return migration; 2.4. The labour market success of immigrants
3. Volume of recent emigration from the EU-8 to the EU-15: assessment on the basis of statistics from receiving countries: 3.1. Description of cross-country migration statistics within the EU; 3.2. Migration from the EU-8 to the EU-15 countries in 2002-2007; 3.3. Emigration from the three Baltic countries in 2002-2007
4. Sample design and assessment of the volume of migration in Estonia in 2007: 4.1. Sample design and main characteristics of the current migration survey; 4.2. Volume of emigration from employment and immigration to employment in Estonia in 2007
5. The structure of emigration: 5.1. Emigration by educational level and occupational group; 5.2. Emigration by economic sector, age, gender, nationality, firm size and region
6. Characteristics of firms exposed to migration: Regression-based analysis: 6.1. Estimation methodology; 6.2. Analysis of emigration; 6.3. Analysis of immigration
7. Conclusion
References
Appendix 1. Definitions of migration and data sources for migration statistics from the EU countries covered in the current study
Appendix 2. Sample statistics

The Structure of Migration in Estonia: Survey-Based Evidence, Working Papers of Eesti Pank No 1/2009 (PDF*)

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Martti Randveer and Tairi Rõõm. The Structure of Migration in Estonia: Survey-Based Evidence