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Khalid Koser (The Brookings Institute) opened the event with a comprehensive talk on the main dimensions and dynamics of migration, followed by Hildegard Schneider (Maastricht University) with an insightful legal overview of European and international migration policy. The afternoon session was more policy oriented, with Sandra Pratt (former European Commission) and Rita Süssmuth (former President of the German Federal Parliament) reviewing the difficult reality of policy making and highlighting the main challenges. Jaap Dronkers (European University Institute) completed the afternoon with an analysis of the social economic integration of immigrants in the EU.

The first day of the Advanced Academic Update was round up with a debate on brain drain. Oded Stark (a.o. University of Bonn) introduced the topic with a short lecture in which he modelled the mechanisms of brain drain, indicating the gains and losses of migration of the highly skilled for both the host and home country. After the introduction, moderator Jo Ritzen (Maastricht University) introduced the panel of experts who lively debated on the model displayed and the topics brought in by the participants. The day was closed with a dinner and an enlightening dinner speech from Deputy Minister Ms. Nebahat Albayrak (Deputy Minister of Justice, The Netherlands).

The programme of the second day started early with the session on remittances. Samuel Munzele Maimbo (World Bank) opened the day focusing on the role of remittances in conflict regions, followed by an analysis of Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes (San Diego State University) highlighting the impact of regulations on remittance flows. The final session on migration and development started with a presentation from Chris de Neubourg (MGSoG) on the impediments to migration. Subsequently, Oded Stark (o.a. University of Bonn) enlightened the audience with his model on the dynamics of migration with as main determinant the relative deprivation of people within their (sub) population. Frederic Docquier (IRES) moved the analysis to the macro-level using a CGE model where he introduced a large migration shock in order to estimate the potential impact of such a shock in the long run. Next, Hillel Rapoport (Bar-Ilan University) empirically analysed the self-selection patterns of Mexican migrants to the USA, indicating the importance of exposure to migration within the Mexican network as determinant for migration and substitute to education as main determining factor. Finally, Hein de Haas (Oxford University) linked back to the first day of the AAU with an overview of different more theoretical perspectives on migration.

After two long but interesting days, both speakers and audience headed home with more than enough material to digest. We would like to thank the participants and speakers for their contribution to this AAU. We at the School certainly enjoyed the AAU, and based on the positive response from both participants and speakers, we will look forward to host a follow up AAU in the future.
 

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