Events
Oral PhD Defense: Denae Harmon
Labor-Mobility Policy and Uneven Higher Education Enrollment Responses in Eurasia
Advisor: Christopher Johnstone
This dissertation examines how supranational labor-mobility policy is associated with uneven higher education enrollment responses across subnational regions in post-Soviet Eurasia. Focusing on the 2015 implementation of labor-mobility provisions within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the study treats policy integration as a discrete institutional change that alters migration incentives without directly targeting educational systems.
The analysis draws on migration theory, including push–pull theory, the New Economics of Labor Migration, and migration systems theory, to examine how pre-existing exposure to Russia-centered migration networks shapes regional responses to labor-mobility integration. Using a difference-in-differences framework applied to a multi-country, subnational panel dataset, the study evaluates variation in enrollment trajectories between EAEU member and non-member regions and across urban and non-urban contexts.
Findings indicate that enrollment responses to EAEU accession are heterogeneous rather than uniform. Regions with stronger pre-existing migration exposure exhibit more attenuated enrollment declines following integration, while less-exposed regions experience more pronounced shifts. Differences between cities and non-city regions are present in magnitude but do not significantly alter the exposure-conditioned relationship.
This dissertation contributes to scholarship on migration and education by linking labor-mobility policy to subnational educational outcomes and by showing how pre-existing migration systems shape policy-associated responses. More broadly, the study highlights how formally uniform policies can produce uneven educational responses across regions.
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