@phdthesis{8735208,
  abstract     = {{Does terrorism affect migration? What drives migrants to stay in their host country, go back, or move onward?

Terrorism is virtually everywhere since 2001. This particular type of violence has a long history, but intensified drastically since the 9/11 attack and the rise of Al-Qaeda ISIS. In parallel, the total number of migrants worlwide keeps increasing, with the overall total number of migrants tripling in the last 50 years according to the World Migration Report 2020. Despite these evidences, little is known about how terrorism affects migration rates. Also, few research has been conducted about why migrants decide to stay in their host country, go back to their birth country, or move onward. This dissertation brings a scientific perspective to improve our understanding of who migrates and the determinants of population movements so as to better anticipate present and future challenges related to population management.

In this dissertation, the most commonly used index of terror intensity (Global Terrorism Index) was improved to obtain accurate data at the regional and monthly levels for more than 130 countries between 2007 and 2015. Similarly, data on
migration rates and migration intentions have been extracted from the Annual Bilateral Migration Database and the Gallup World Poll respectively. Both database allow to study yearly changes in patterns of migration (intentions) in a large set of countries. In addition, the latter allows to simultaneously measure the effect of terrorism on intentions to migrate internally and internationally. 

Overall, the more attacks there are in a region/country, the more people seem to move to another region/country or avoid the place attacked. The magnitude of the effect is rather small though. Also, the number of victims seems to be the main determinant of people’s decision to move. Importantly, terrorism has an effect on people’s decision to move on top of conflicts, despite the large majority of attacks happening during conflicts. At the microeconomic level, the more educated the impacted population is, the more likely they are to move after terrorist attacks. In addition, religious individuals seem to cope better after terrorist events, and thus intend to move less. Yet, estimated relationships appear to vary by the type of countries (depending on their income level) considered.

Furthermore, few studies have looked simultaneously at the reasons driving migrants to stay in their host country, return at origin, or move onward. In this dissertation, it is shown that the majority of first generation immigrants aspire
to stay in their host country. We found that migrants wanting to move tend to be younger, non-married, with worse health, new in the host country, and living mostly in Africa or Latin/South America. The location of migrants’ family and
friends is also an important factor in migrants' location decision. Interestingly, the decision does not seem to be primarily driven by economic well-being, but rather by social fulfilment. Another striking result is that migrants are willing to go back to their country of origin when there is an unexpected event such as a disaster or a rise in terror intensity there to help their relatives. 

For policy-makers, understanding whether terrorism influences internal and international migration rates is of utmost concern. They can use that information to adjust assimilation programs or negotiate agreements about migrants’ receptions with their neighbouring countries. Knowing the typical profiles of migrants is also essential to ease the integration of targeted newcomers or retain valued individuals, but also to understand migrants’ incentives and indirect benefits for sending countries through remittances.}},
  author       = {{Foubert, Killian}},
  keywords     = {{Migration,Migration intention,International migration,Internal migration,Return migration,Onward migration,Migration aspirations,Terrorism,Violence}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{XIX, 221}},
  publisher    = {{Ghent University. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration}},
  school       = {{Ghent University}},
  title        = {{Essays on migration, migration intentions, and terrorism}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}