The Structure of Migration in Estonia: Survey-Based Evidence

(1) Title
The Structure of Migration in Estonia: Survey-Based Evidence
(2) Objectives
We analyze the structure of emigration from Estonia on the basis of a survey that was designed by the authors of this article and carried out by the Bank of Estonia in January 2008. The survey targeted company managers and its aim was to collect information on cross-border migration to and from employment in 2007. The main focus of the survey was on emigration patterns: Which types of workers emigrate from Estonia? Are they predominantly young people? What is their average level of education?  Are they mostly men or women, native Estonians or people of other nationalities?
(3) Data and methods
The sample that forms the basis of the following analysis of migration patterns from Estonia was collected via internet-based questionnaires that were filled out by company managers.  The data was collected in January 2008, with the questions referring to 2007. The survey covered 592 enterprises, which employed 54,471 workers. This represented 9.13% of the total number of wage and salary earners in Estonia in 2007. The questionnaire was designed by the authors of the current article and the implementation of the survey was outsourced to TNS Emor. The selection of the companies who participated in the survey was based on a stratified random sampling. The response rate was 35.4%. Stratification was based on enterprise size (measured on the basis of employment), sector and region. The sample covered all sectors and regions. Enterprises with less than five employees were not included in the sample.
(4) Results/Expected results
According to our results an average emigrant from Estonia was most likely a young person between 15 – 34 years of age, a blue-collar worker and male. Contrary to evidence from other countries and/or earlier time periods, employees with a low level of education were more likely to emigrate than highly educated workers. Evidence from the current survey for Estonia is in line with the finding that a large share of recent migration from new EU member countries to old EU member countries is temporary. We assessed which enterprises were more exposed to the cross-border movement of workers. The vast majority (97%) of emigrants left from private sector enterprises. Most immigrant workers were employed by private sector companies as well. Firms hiring a larger share of low-skilled blue-collar workers were more exposed to the mobility of international labour. The regression results indicated that the tendency to emigrate was the strongest among construction sector employees.
(5) Conclusions
We conclude that the reasons for the emigration of people with low level of education was related to the following factors: (1) there are no significant differences in the entry barriers for people with different levels of educations in EU, (2) the cost of travelling has decreased over recent years, reducing the relevance of emigration-related costs as an entry barrier, which are more important for less educated persons, (3) people with low levels of education experienced a larger relative growth in earnings after moving abroad.