Temporary migration and economic assimilation

In this paper I study temporary migration and its consequences for immigrant behaviour. A distinction is made between temporary migration where the return time is exogenous and where the migrant chooses when to return. The consequences of both types of temporary migration for migrant behaviour (as opposed to a permanent migration) are illustrated. The specification of the empirical models will be affected by whether or not migration is non-permanent. The problems that arise for the empirical work are discussed in the second part of the paper. Finally, I summarise some empirical evidence that is consistent with the hypothesis that the behaviour of temporary migrants is different from that of permanent migrants.