Migration causes and impact on labour market

The paper aims to analyses the reasons of migration of Lithuanian residents and evaluate its impact on the indicators of the labour market. The nature of migration has been recently changing, thus the limits of theories explaining migration processes have expanded; however, like the first migration theories, contemporary theories emphasise the economic origin of migration. During the period under discussion the indicators of residents’ migration could be characterised by uneven dynamics. The migrant flow to the United Kingdom and Ireland which increased in 2008–2009 could be explained by the theoretical provisions of the migration network and family reunification. The comparative analysis of the unemployment rate, wages, GDP per capita of Lithuania and main destination countries (Ireland, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, the USA) and the analysis of the relationship between emigration from Lithuania and these indicators in the destination country substantiated the theoretical assumption that the main reasons of emigration could be the differences of these economic indicators in the country of origin and destination countries. The summary of the results leads to the statement that residents’ emigration does not have a strong significant impact on the country’s labour market indicators, except that the number of emigrants significantly correlates with the number of young persons. In the event of the surplus labour market in the country of origin, vacancies with respect to leaving emigrants are quickly filled with job-seekers; therefore, the impact of emigration on the number of employed residents is not significant