Adam Smith Business School

Michele Battisti studies migration as something that shapes whole societies: the people who move, the people who stay, and the communities that receive newcomers. His work examines how immigration affects job opportunities, the tax and benefit system, and the everyday choices migrants make as they settle into a new country.

A key part of this research explores how immigration changes living standards for residents in advanced economies. Instead of assuming that workers instantly find jobs, Michele builds in the reality of job search, unemployment and the role of the state in collecting taxes and providing benefits and services. By combining this richer picture with data from many OECD countries, he shows how the impact of immigration depends on the mix of skills migrants bring, the ease of job creation, and the generosity and redistributive nature of the welfare state. The results suggest that immigration can raise the overall standard of living for people already living in a country, but that the size and distribution of these gains vary with national institutions and policies. Michele is currently working on a new project that builds on this original work while investigating more realistic public finance environments and knowledge spillovers driven by skill mix of migrants and non-migrants, with new data.

Alongside this big-picture work, Michele focuses on refugees' experiences as they try to enter the labour market. Refugees are often keen to work but face additional obstacles: uncertain legal status, limited language skills, limited information about local opportunities, and few employer contacts. Working with a non-governmental organisation in Germany, he evaluates a programme that provides practical support such as CV preparation, direct matching to vacancies and contact with employers. By tracking refugees over time and comparing those offered extra help with a similar group who were not, he isolates the programme's true effect. The evidence shows that personalised job-search assistance can make a real difference, particularly for those with less formal education and those still waiting for a final decision on their right to stay.

Michele also examines how local migrant communities influence long-term outcomes. New arrivals often choose areas where people from their background have already settled, gaining informal support with housing, paperwork, and job searches. Using detailed data from Germany, he follows migrants from arrival onwards to see how the size of the local co-ethnic community shapes their decisions and prospects. He finds that having a larger community of people from the same country nearby tends to improve the chances of finding a job in the first few years, because information and referrals flow more easily. Over time, however, migrants in areas with smaller communities are more likely to invest in language courses and education, eventually catching up in employment and skills. This reveals a subtle trade-off between immediate support and longer-term human capital investment.

Across these projects, Michele uses a mix of economic theory, large datasets, administrative records and experimental methods. The common thread is a focus on clear, causal evidence that can guide policy. His findings inform debates on how many migrants a country can productively absorb, how to design fair and efficient welfare systems in a mobile world, and how best to support refugees and other newcomers as they build new lives.

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For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk. 

First published: 20 January 2026