Christian Dustmann - Böcker

The changing economic reality of the last decades has prompted large movements of people across and within national borders, which, in turn, have given rise to new opportunities and challenges. This volume addresses a number of key aspects of these developments, by bringing together a unique collection of chapters, written by leading scholars from three different disciplines: economics, sociology, and political science. The first part of the book - Economic Change - starts with two case studies: The mass migration from the former Soviet Union to Israel in the early 1990s, and the mass migration from rural to urban areas in China that started in the mid 1990s. The final chapter of the first part provides a thorough introduction and overview into methodologies that can help to address numerous issues faced by researchers working with migration data, of the type underlying the analysis in the first two chapters. The second part of the book - Social Challenge - discusses how societies are shaped by immigration. It investigates the pitfalls of policies that do not take account of the implications for decisions of individual migrants; explores the important aspect of family re-unification and discusses whether society should follow a path towards a multicultural society or a society that forces newcomers to adopt existing cultures. Finally, this volume ponders whether the diversity created through migration impacts negatively on the societal structure of the receiving countries. These chapters together, written by some of the foremost experts in the areas, provide intriguing insights into the complexity of migratory phenomena and the challenges to policy and society at large.

The changing economic reality of the last decades has prompted large movements of people across and within national borders, which, in turn, have given rise to new opportunities and challenges. This volume addresses a number of key aspects of these developments, by bringing together a unique collection of chapters, written by leading scholars from three different disciplines: economics, sociology, and political science. The first part of the book - Economic Change - starts with two case studies: The mass migration from the former Soviet Union to Israel in the early 1990s, and the mass migration from rural to urban areas in China that started in the mid 1990s. The final chapter of the first part provides a thorough introduction and overview into methodologies that can help to address numerous issues faced by researchers working with migration data, of the type underlying the analysis in the first two chapters. The second part of the book - Social Challenge - discusses how societies are shaped by immigration. It investigates the pitfalls of policies that do not take account of the implications for decisions of individual migrants; explores the important aspect of family re-unification and discusses whether society should follow a path towards a multicultural society or a society that forces newcomers to adopt existing cultures. Finally, this volume ponders whether the diversity created through migration impacts negatively on the societal structure of the receiving countries. These chapters together, written by some of the foremost experts in the areas, provide intriguing insights into the complexity of migratory phenomena and the challenges to policy and society at large.

Volumes 5 and 6 of the Handbook of Labor Economics will systematically review the research topics, empirical findings, and methods that constitute frontier research in the field. The focus will be on the most important research advances that have taken place since the publication of the previous Handbook Volume 4 almost 15 years ago.How do factors such as trade, technology, skills, immigration, crime, unions, race, and gender affect wages and employment in modern labor markets?What is the labor market impact of policy interventions such as minimum wages, employment and training policies, and family policies? Recent methodological advances in empirical methods and models of the labor market in the presence of imperfect competition

Education and training are key to explain the current competitive strengths of national economies, and to secure future competitiveness. While in the past educational and training institutions were often seen as providers of necessary skills for national economies, this view has changed dramatically, with education and training now being seen as a key ingredient for international competitiveness. This collection of papers on various aspects of the economics of education and training reflects this new interest. Reflecting state-of the art research in a cross country comparison, the topics covered are financing of education, transition from school to work, organisation of education, school quality and issues that relate to it, like quality of peers and teacher quality. Some papers also address issues that relate to more vocational training activities, and how these are influenced by purpose-made programmes, or other institutions.

While in the past educational and training institutions were often seen as providers of necessary skills for national economies, this view has changed dramatically, with education and training now being seen as a key ingredient for international competitiveness.