BICEPS/SSE Riga Research Seminar: The Civic Consequences of Migration: Social and Political Participation of Latvians At Home and Abroad

We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar! It will take place on Thursday, February 7 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:

“The Civic Consequences of Migration: Social and Political Participation of Latvians At Home and Abroad” by Inta Mieriņa (The Center for Diaspora and Migration Research, University of Latvia).

Abstract

Existing research indicates that group identity and group attachment are important sources of trust, cooperation, and commitment to one’s group, helping to overcome social dilemmas, facilitating collective action and contributing to public good (Tyler, 2001; Goette et al., 2006; Simpson, 2006; Yamagishi & Mifune, 2008; Dawes & Messick 2010). To what extent the fact that emigrants are potentially less embedded in their new community, and presumably less attached to their new place of residence than to one’s home country affects their civic and pro-social behavior in the receiving country? This paper looks at the consequences of migration on civil society, civic activism and contribution to public good. Using propensity score matching, young emigrants from Latvia – one of the sending countries within post-enlargement EU – are compared to young people within Latvia who have not emigrated, to test whether moving to another country is associated with reduced levels of trust and attachment to the local community and place. If this is the case, young emigrants could be less likely to engage in civic and social activities in the receiving country than their counterparts at home.  A rich set of controls allows distinguishing between emigration effect and selection effect. The analysis is based on data collected in ERC StG240830 project “Public Goods through Private Eyes: Exploring Citizens’ Attitudes towards Public Goods and the State in East-Central Europe” and ESF 2013/0055/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/13/APIA/VIAA/040 project “Emigrant communities of Latvia: national identity, transnational relations, and diaspora politics”.

No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.