ifo DICE Report 1/2018 (Spring): Labour Migration

Section: Forum – Labour Migration

Modern knowledge economies increasingly depend on skilled labour as a factor of production. In order to cope with demand from their domestic labour markets, many countries internationally compete for highly skilled immigrants. These immigrants contribute to public finances and, in societies with ageing populations, can mitigate the fiscal burden of demographic change. However, the degree to which governments implement policies aimed at attracting skilled immigrants differs substantially across countries. This is also because concerns over the negative redistributive effects of unrestricted immigration often hamper the reform of labour immigration policies. The Forum of the ifo DICE Report 1/2018 presents and compares different immigration policies, and contributes to the debate over how policies should be designed to meet labour market demand in receiving economies.