This article introduces the Special Issue on “The Economics of Migration: Labour Market Impacts and Migration Policies”. In the paper, we summarize the selection of articles published in the Special Issue and place their contributions in the context of the main developments in this field. We have organized the articles into three broad thematic areas. The first set of papers provides novel evidence on migrant selection. The following group of articles delves into the core literature of the labour market impacts of immigration, with a particular focus on high-skilled immigration and selective immigration policies. A final group of papers deals with more specific - and often controversial – topics: refugee migration, undocumented migration and the political consequences of migrant flows. In the concluding remarks, we extract from the different papers some guidance for future migration policies.

Joan Llull acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) through Starting Grant n. 804989, from the Generalitat de Catalunya, through SGR Grant 2017-SGR-1765, and from the Spanish Ministery Science and Innovation through grant PGC2018- 094364-B-I00 and through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (CEX2019-000915-S). Cristina Tealdi acknowledges financial support from the European Commission through the Marie Curie grant n. 322305 and from the Royal Economic Society through the Special Project Grant Scheme.

Peer reviewed