TY - JOUR
T1 - Can information and alternatives to irregular migration reduce "backway" migration from The Gambia?
AU - Bah, Tijan L.
AU - Batista, Cátia
AU - Gubert, Flore
AU - Mckenzie, David
N1 - We thank the editor and two anonymous referees for helpful comments, our formal discussant Giacomo Battiston and participants in various seminars for
comments on the results, the migration experts and Gambian stakeholders who provided predictions of our treatment effects, Mam Jarra Njie and Vitor Cavalcanti for excellent research assistance and support of field activities, YAIM, and the Ministry of Youths and Sports, Gambian Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, The Gambian Migrant Associations in Senegal and Italy, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This work was supported by the European Union grant number AMIF-2017-AG-INFO 824432.
The content represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains. Ethical approval was granted by the Nova School of Business and Economics on March 1, 2019. The study was pre-registered in the AEA RCT registry as AEARCTR-0003998 on March 2019. http://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3998.
PY - 2023/10
Y1 - 2023/10
N2 - Irregular migration from West Africa to Europe across the Sahara and Mediterranean is extremely risky for migrants and a key policy concern. A cluster-randomized experiment with 3641 young men from 391 settlements in The Gambia is used to test three approaches to reducing risky migration: providing better information and testimonials about the risks of the journey, facilitating migration to a safer destination by providing information and assistance for migration to Dakar, and offering vocational skill training to enhance domestic employment opportunities. Current migration to Senegal was increased by both the Dakar facilitation and vocational training treatments, partially crowding out internal migration. The vocational training treatment reduced intentions to migrate the backway and the number of steps taken toward moving. However, the backway migration rate from The Gambia collapsed, even in the control group, resulting in no space for a treatment effect on irregular migration from any of the three interventions.
AB - Irregular migration from West Africa to Europe across the Sahara and Mediterranean is extremely risky for migrants and a key policy concern. A cluster-randomized experiment with 3641 young men from 391 settlements in The Gambia is used to test three approaches to reducing risky migration: providing better information and testimonials about the risks of the journey, facilitating migration to a safer destination by providing information and assistance for migration to Dakar, and offering vocational skill training to enhance domestic employment opportunities. Current migration to Senegal was increased by both the Dakar facilitation and vocational training treatments, partially crowding out internal migration. The vocational training treatment reduced intentions to migrate the backway and the number of steps taken toward moving. However, the backway migration rate from The Gambia collapsed, even in the control group, resulting in no space for a treatment effect on irregular migration from any of the three interventions.
KW - Cash transfer
KW - Information interventions
KW - Irregular migration
KW - Migration deterrence
KW - Randomized experiment
KW - Vocational training
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=nova_api&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:001053557000001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS
U2 - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103153
DO - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103153
M3 - Article
SN - 0304-3878
VL - 165
JO - Journal of Development Economics
JF - Journal of Development Economics
M1 - 103153
ER -