AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE ON IMMIGRATION
How might an economic perspective on immigration help us understand the issues at stake? The answer follows from a crucial hypothesis. It is that immigrants choose to come to the United States. The immigrant flow is composed of the pool of persons who are attracted by the earnings, employment, and welfare opportunities provided by the American economy, which are willing to incur costs associated with immigration, and who are able to gain entry into the country. Persons migrating are “self-selected.” They are not “average” in the country from which they come.
In a sense, the United States competes with other countries, such as the home countries of migrants and other potential host countries, for the immigrants’ human and physical capital. International trade involves not only the movement of goods and services among countries but also the movement of people.
Just as nations compete in a worldwide market in which goods and services are exchanged, they also compete in an immigration market. By presenting a specific set of economic opportunities and by pursuing an immigration policy that prevents the entry of some persons but encourages the entry of others, the United States makes a particular type of “offer” in the immigration market. The attractiveness of the offer, relative to the offers of other countries, determines the size and composition of the immigrant flow entering the United States. This perspective on the study of immigration yields a number of new insights that can play a central role in the ongoing debate about immigration policy.
according to the article « Immigration and the economy » by By George J. Borjas (the journal «THE SENIOR ECONOMIST» )
GEORGE J. BORJAS is Professor of Economics at the University of California at San Diego. He is author of «Friends or Strangers» published by Basic Books