{"title":"Dream killer: Motivations behind illegal migration","authors":"Farid Makhlouf , Hammou El Otmany","doi":"10.1016/j.rie.2025.101063","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Illegal migration poses a significant challenge for both sides of the Mediterranean. To understand the motivation behind the intention to migrate illegally from Tunisia, this study, based on a survey conducted by the Arab Barometer in 2021, uses a two-stage Heckman model to control for selection bias and tests different factors such as education levels, social capital, and social networks. The findings show that a lack of education or a low level of education significantly increases the desire to go abroad even without the required documents. This statement is more strongly made by those with relatively low levels of social capital. In addition, social networks were identified as an essential factor in legal migration but do not explain illegal migration.</div><div>This study is therefore convinced that investment in education and social capital can be an effective tool in mitigating clandestine migration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46094,"journal":{"name":"Research in Economics","volume":"79 3","pages":"Article 101063"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Research in Economics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090944325000407","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Illegal migration poses a significant challenge for both sides of the Mediterranean. To understand the motivation behind the intention to migrate illegally from Tunisia, this study, based on a survey conducted by the Arab Barometer in 2021, uses a two-stage Heckman model to control for selection bias and tests different factors such as education levels, social capital, and social networks. The findings show that a lack of education or a low level of education significantly increases the desire to go abroad even without the required documents. This statement is more strongly made by those with relatively low levels of social capital. In addition, social networks were identified as an essential factor in legal migration but do not explain illegal migration.
This study is therefore convinced that investment in education and social capital can be an effective tool in mitigating clandestine migration.
期刊介绍:
Established in 1947, Research in Economics is one of the oldest general-interest economics journals in the world and the main one among those based in Italy. The purpose of the journal is to select original theoretical and empirical articles that will have high impact on the debate in the social sciences; since 1947, it has published important research contributions on a wide range of topics. A summary of our editorial policy is this: the editors make a preliminary assessment of whether the results of a paper, if correct, are worth publishing. If so one of the associate editors reviews the paper: from the reviewer we expect to learn if the paper is understandable and coherent and - within reasonable bounds - the results are correct. We believe that long lags in publication and multiple demands for revision simply slow scientific progress. Our goal is to provide you a definitive answer within one month of submission. We give the editors one week to judge the overall contribution and if acceptable send your paper to an associate editor. We expect the associate editor to provide a more detailed evaluation within three weeks so that the editors can make a final decision before the month expires. In the (rare) case of a revision we allow four months and in the case of conditional acceptance we allow two months to submit the final version. In both cases we expect a cover letter explaining how you met the requirements. For conditional acceptance the editors will verify that the requirements were met. In the case of revision the original associate editor will do so. If the revision cannot be at least conditionally accepted it is rejected: there is no second revision.