Network Analysis of International Migration

The work studies international migration in an integrated way. First, the network analysis of international migration flows is made to find the most influential countries in the international migration process. Second, the determinants of migrant stock are evaluated using an econometric model. The network analysis is made by the evaluation of classical centrality indices and new centrality indices. New centrality indices consider short (SRIC) and long-range (LRIC) indirect interactions, group influence and the node attribute – population of the destination country. The model is applied to the annual data on international migration flows from 1970 to 2013 provided by United Nations Organization. It is shown that countries with huge migration flows are outlined by both classical and SRIC, LRIC indices, and SRIC and LRIC indices point out countries with considerable outflows of migrants to countries highly involved in international migration and the most interconnected countries. Econometric model is presented by panel data regression. Each observation in the data set is represented by bilateral (country-to-country) migrant stock. Data is available for 213 countries by five-year periods from 1990 to 2015. Bilateral migrant stock is modeled by the set of explanatory variables including conventional factors (GDP, distance and the size of diaspora) and education level and the magnitude of conflicts at origin. It is shown that the level of education at origin reduces the pull effect of diaspora and the magnitude of conflicts increases the effect of distance.