THE IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION ON UNEMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN KENYA
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Date
2012-02-20
Authors
MULATIA, Charles Maingi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Mauritius
Abstract
This paper employs the annual time series data spanning 1980 to 2010 to analyze the impact of
immigration on unemployment and economic growth in Kenya. This is followed by the recent attacks
from the Somali’s insurgent group; al shabaab. The militias’ invasion of Kenya’s territory coupled with
the fear that immigrants rob natives their jobs has raised eye brows among Kenyans. This paper seeks to
allay such fears and dig on the real impact of immigrants on Kenya’s economic performance via the
product and hence the labour market. In the analysis, the study makes use of instrumental variable (IV),
a special case of GMM, due to the problem of data limitation and endogeneity amongst the variables.
The results indicate that on obtainable evidence, fear of large gloomy employment and economic
growth are not justified. The perception that immigrants steal jobs away from existing population, thus
contributing to large increases in unemployment do not find verification in the analysis of data.
Description
Keywords
Immigration, , Unemployment, , Economic Growth, , Endogeneity, , instrumental Variable and GMM