On 18 November 2021, PHD Maximilian Schiele has successfully defended her thesis « Unequal Migrants: Systematic Selection and Its Consequences in the Context of Inequality » (under the supervision of Prof. Louis Chauvel) and has been granted the title of Doctor.
We warmly congratulate him for the great work she has accomplished during his PHD and wish him an as brilliant career.
Maximilian’s Thesis Abstract
This thesis investigates the intersection between international migration and socio-economic inequality. Social inequality may influence who migrates, which may consequently determine patterns of socio-economic inequality in the host society. This connection among the origin country’s inequality, selection, and the host country’s inequality is investigated in three chapters. Each chapter addresses one aspect of the process.
The first chapter provides an overview of existing theories on inequality and selection during international migratory flows. Most existing studies investigate selection in outmigration from the skill-selection perspective given the context of the returns to skill between labor markets in different countries. Other studies investigate selection through such productivity-relevant traits as health or personal attitudes. After the literature review, a new study is presented regarding gender inequality’s impact on gender selection during asylum migration.
The second chapter summarizes the discussion on whether return migration occurs due to failure or success, as well as its implications for selections occurring during the return migration process. Subsequently, the second study in this thesis presents an analysis with a novel approach to addressing this question.
The final and third chapter analyzes the consequences of selection for the dynamics of socioeconomic inequality within the host country’s society. First, a summary is given of literature on how inequality of outcomes may transform into an inequality of opportunity for immigrants. This is followed by the presentation of a new study that investigates the connection of immigrant minorities’ socio-economic composition and its effect on children’s school outcomes. The three chapters’ strengths, weaknesses, and implications are then discussed.