DP1920 | Determinants of International Migration: Empirical Evidence for Migration from Developing Countries to Germany

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By means of a descriptive survey of theoretical literature we first work out the potential determinants that may drive international migration from developing to developed countries. In addition, we look at the relationship between trade, development and migration. Empirical studies focusing on international migration from Less Developed Countries (LDCs) are, so far, very scarce. In this paper, we utilize a new dataset that is based on migration to Germany from 86 African and Asian countries. Information is available on overall moves (1981?95) and asylum migration (1984?95). The estimation results confirm the importance of the economic differential between countries for migration; the existence of an inverse u-shaped relationship between development and migration; the importance of the political situation in the sending countries; and the significance of network effects.