News about CReAM

A study by CReAM researchers published in the Economic Journal documents early academic achievement gaps and subsequent catching-up processes between six main ethnic minority groups and white British-born individuals. The researchers also examine the factors that determine the relative progress of ethnic minority pupils through the compulsory curriculum. They find that improvements in their ability with the English Language is the single most important contributor to the catch-up or overtaking of ethnic minority pupils relative to white British pupils. Language accounts for up to two thirds of their relative progress. The article “Ethnic and Educational Achievement in Compulsory Schooling”, by Christian Dustmann, Stephen Machin and Uta Schönberg, is published in the August 2010 issue of the Economic Journal.
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A new research paper from CReAM (Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at UCL) investigates the factors which determine individual attitudes towards migration policy. The researchers note that immigration affects a country in many ways, from the economic effects on public spending and on the wages of workers competing with immigrants in the job market, to the cultural effects associated with changing the composition of the population. All of these factors currently figure in popular discussion and it is important to understand which has the biggest influence on generating hostility or openness to immigration policy. The paper “Immigration, Wages, and Compositional Amenities”, by David Card, Christian Dustmann and Ian Preston, is CReAM Discussion Paper No.29/09

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A new CReAM Discussion Paper shows that immigrants from the eight Central and Eastern European countries that joined the European Union in May 2004 are less likely to be claiming welfare benefits and to be living in social housing than people born in the UK. What is more, they have made a positive contribution to the UK fiscal system, paying more in taxes than they receive in direct or indirect public transfers. For example, in 2008/09, A8 immigrants represented 0.91% of the total UK population, but contributed 0.96% of total tax receipts and accounted for only 0.6% of total expenditures. This is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the fiscal consequences of migration to the UK following EU enlargement to take in the so-called ‘A8 countries’ – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland. The paper “Assessing Fiscal Costs and Benefits of A8 Migration to the UK”, by Christian Dustmann, Tommaso Frattini and Caroline Halls, is CReAM Discussion Paper No.18/09

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Claudia Trentini took over a post as Associate Economic Affairs Officer in the Office of the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva in spring 2009. Before that, she had been working at CReAM as a Research Officer since January 2007.

Josep Mestres works as an Economist and Policy Analyst at the International Migration Division of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) in Paris since spring 2009. He had been working at CReAM as a Research Officer and PhD student since 2003.

NORFACE has nominated Christian Dustmann, Director of CReAM and Professor at UCL's Department of Economics, Programme Director of the NORFACE Research Programme "Migration in Europe - Social, Economic, Cultural and Policy Dynamics". The Programme Director will work with the projects granted funding from the programme, bringing various teams together and ensuring good communications from the various research teams.

NORFACE - New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe - is a partnership between fourteen research councils to increase co-operation in research and research policy in Europe.

CReAM has been rewarded a grant from NORFACE for a four years research programme on migration. Jonathan Wadsworth (CReAM deputy director) and Uta Schoenberg are the Principal Investigators, and the team includes research groups from 6 countries, led by Alexandra Spitz-Oener (Humbold University Berlin), Anders Bjorklund (Stockholm University), Bernt Bratsberg (University of Oslo), Anna Piil Damm (Aarhus University), Roope Uusitalo (University of Helsinki), and Thomas Lemieux and Nicole Fortin (UCB Vancouver).

David Card's Ely Lecture to the 2009 AEA meetings is available
as CReAM DP 07/09.

Immigration: Impacts, Integration and Intergenerational Issues
University College London (UCL), 29 to 31 March 2006
To view photos from the conference please click here