Ivlevs Artjoms, King Roswitha M
University of the West of England (U.K.), IZA (Germany), Riga Stradins University, Latvia.
Department of Economics, Ostfold University College, 1757 Halden, Norway.
J Migr Health. 2025 Jan 24;11:100305. doi: 10.1016/j.jmh.2025.100305. eCollection 2025.
High or growing rates of smoking tobacco and high rates of emigration are salient features of many low- and middle-income countries, yet the links between migration and smoking remain underexplored. We study the effects of household member emigration on the likelihood of smoking among those staying behind in the countries of former Yugoslavia. Using instrumental variable analysis, we find that the emigration of household members reduces the likelihood of smoking, especially among women and older respondents. These findings support the 'social remittances' hypothesis that migration contributes to the transfer of smoking-related norms from destination to source countries. Migration may thus contribute to socioeconomic development of source countries by reducing one of the world's biggest health epidemics: smoking.
烟草高吸烟率或不断增长的吸烟率以及高移民率是许多低收入和中等收入国家的显著特征，但移民与吸烟之间的联系仍未得到充分研究。我们研究了家庭成员移民对前南斯拉夫国家留守人员吸烟可能性的影响。通过工具变量分析，我们发现家庭成员的移民降低了吸烟的可能性，尤其是在女性和年长受访者中。这些发现支持了“社会汇款”假说，即移民有助于将与吸烟相关的规范从目的地国转移到来源国。因此，移民可能通过减少世界上最大的健康流行病之一：吸烟，为来源国的社会经济发展做出贡献。
