The "la Caixa" Foundation's Social Observatory recently featured the paper, "Searching for a better life: Predicting international migration with online search keywords," by Marcus H. Böhme (German Federal Ministry of Finance), Andre Groeger (MOVE, UAB and BSE), and Tobias Heidland (né Stöhr) (Kiel Institute for the World Economy and IZA).
In the paper, the authors demonstrate how geo-referenced online search data can be used to measure migration intentions in origin countries and to predict bilateral migration flows. The Social Observatory highlights three key points from this work:
- Those aspiring to migrate typically acquire information about migration opportunities online, in their countries of origin, prior to departure. These data can be used to make short-term predictions about numbers of migrants, which may be very useful in situations such as humanitarian crises.
- Google search data, which represent searches by over 1 billion people worldwide, are free of charge for small queries. Using the data to study international migration can be helpful, especially in developing countries because, to date, information on migration and people’s migration intention is scarce or exclusively available to paying users.
- Google search data, which represent searches by over 1 billion people worldwide, are free of charge for small queries. Using the data to study international migration can be helpful, especially in developing countries because, to date, information on migration and people’s migration intention is scarce or exclusively available to paying users.
The paper "Searching for a better life: Predicting international migration with online search keywords" has been published in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Develoment Economics.
