Determinants of Immigration in Europe. The Relevance of Life Expectancy and Environmental Sustainability

This research analyzes the main variables that determine immigration in Europe and includes aspects related to the economy, population, healthcare, and environmental sustainability. The empirical analysis consists of two sets of data: one made up of all EU member states (EU-28) and the other containing countries that form a part of the Eurozone (EU-19), using the Generalized Method of Moments. The sample covers the period between 2000 and 2014, and the data are analyzed separately and comparatively in the most relevant stages during that time (economic prosperity, crisis, and recovery). The most notable results indicate that the variables related to GDP and public debt largely serve to justify the level of immigration since the crisis (2008–2014), while the life expectancy and levels of pollution are determining factors in all three stages examined here. The study concludes that countries in the Eurozone are more sensitive to variation in the variables studied compared to all the EU member states and thus the impact of immigration among the EU-19 countries is more notable.