Opening Immigration Will Boost the Economy
Posted at 8 a.m. on Nov. 16, 2012
Free Exchange digs into the latest research on opening borders and concludes that “increased flows of people across borders could ignite global growth.”
“As of 2000…a worker in Mexico earned a wage 40% that of a Mexican-born worker of similar education and experience working in America. Most of this wage gap is down to productivity differences, stemming from disparities in the quality of infrastructure, institutions and skills… If migration closes a quarter of the migrants’ productivity gap with the rich world, their average income would rise by $7,000. That would be enough to raise global output by 30%, or about $21 trillion.”
Notable: “Millions may move from poor world to rich without bidding down wages in the rich country relative to the developing one… if the pace of movement is slow enough to allow investment to adjust, borders could open without any wage dislocation in either origin or destination economies.”
