NOVAFRICA Working Paper: From Destination to Origin: Experimental Evidence on the International Spillovers of Migrant Integration

New research examines how a low-cost digital intervention reducing information frictions among Cape Verdean immigrants in Portugal improves their labor market outcomes and social integration, generating cross-border spillovers that boost political participation and promote more egalitarian gender norms in the origin country.

Title:

From Destination to Origin: Experimental Evidence on the International Spillovers of Migrant Integration

Catia Batista

Nova School of Business and Economics – Universidade Nova de Lisboa, CEPR, CReAM, IZA, J-PAL and NOVAFRICA

Lara Bohnet

New York University

Jules Gazeaud

CNRS, CERDI, Université Clermont Auvergne

Julia Seither

University of Chicago, JILAEE, J-PAL, and NOVAFRICA

ISSN 2183-0843
Working Paper No 2503
August 2025
Revised in February 2026

Abstract:

International migration can promote development in both origin and destination countries. We hypothesize that migrant integration in destination countries is an important constraint on these gains. Using a randomized controlled trial, we study the effects of a low-cost, scalable digital intervention designed to reduce information frictions among Cape Verdean immigrants in Portugal. Access to the intervention improves migrants’ labor market outcomes, legal status, social integration with native-born individuals, and aspirations. These integration gains generate international spillovers, increasing political participation and leading to more egalitarian gender norms in the migrants’ origin-country. Leveraging variation in official destination country electoral data, we show that political participation transmits through increased exposure of better-integrated migrants to prevalent local norms at destination. These international turnout spillovers are weaker in localities with higher far-right support, consistent with a less migrant welcoming political climate attenuating norm diffusion.

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