The Political Costs of Emigration

The academic literature and the public debate on brain drain have focused mainly on its economic and social costs. Yet emigration has a political cost, too: it harms dynamism and change. This is what emerges from a study conducted by Massimo Anelli and Giovanni Peri and reported on Does Emigration Delay Political Change? Evidence from Italy During the Great Recession. The authors analyzed whether emigration affected the characteristics of city councils and mayors during the Great Recession.

"Aggregated data tell us that, during that period of time, city councilmen, mayors and council members became on average younger and better educated. The presence of women has also increased", Massimo Anelli says. "In municipalities where emigration was high there was no such change. Actually, in 2010-2014, an increase in the emigration rate by 1 percentage point of the population has increased the age of mayor by 3 years. City councilmen with a college degree fell accordingly by 10%, the number of city council women fell by 16%. There was also an increase in the number of dismissals of city councils, a proxy for political inefficiency". The emigration wave was mostly concentrated in Northern Italy, where the emigration rate has almost doubled, while it has decreased in the South and has remained stable in Central Italy. Young people flew out of the most dynamic areas of Italy where preexisting links to countries such as Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom facilitated migration. The phenomenon has also affected the voting preferences of the local electorate: city councils experienced lower political participation and a lower share of votes to anti-status-quo parties. "Literature tells us that there are two strategies of political dissent: exit vs voice. Allowing emigrants to vote in local elections would allow them to keep the 'voice' option even when they 'exit' the system".

Read more about this topic:
The Mark of the Great Migrations. Article by Andrea Colli
Alessandra Casarico. Market Benefits for Legalized Immigrants
Carlo Devillanova. The Uninformed Find the Door to Healthcare Shut
Joseph-Simon Goerlach. Moving from the South to the North Improves Your Salary. But Not Your Wealth
Paolo Pinotti. Foreign Students at School: How to Break Educational Segregation
Graziella Romeo. The Contradictions of the European Legal System