WHY CHOOSE TO MIGRATE?
Economists typically assume that individuals choose to behave in ways that maximize their well-being. In this context, immigrants strive to choose the country that offers them the best economic opportunities. There exists a close analogy between the immigration market and the job market. Like persons looking for work, potential migrants enter the market; receive offers from competing host countries and their home country, compare the offers, and make a migration decision.
The immigration market approach reveals the link between the components of the U.S. offer (including economic characteristics and the visa-allocation system dictated by the U.S. immigration policy) and the size of the immigrant flow entering the country. As economic conditions in the United States change (relative to those in other countries), different types of persons find it economically beneficial to migrate. Similarly, whenever Congress changes important aspects of immigration policy, immigration costs are altered for many potential migrants, and a different immigrant flow enters the United States. To assess the benefits and the costs of alternative immigration policies, therefore, it is necessary to determine how key components of America’s offer in the immigration market affect the incentives of potential migrants.
If we assume that individuals move in response to better economic opportunities, it is evident that differences in average income levels among countries are a prime determinant of the size and direction of immigrant flows. Immigrants tend to gravitate from low-income countries to high-income countries. Further, the greater the income differential between the countries, the larger the size of the population flow. For instance, the wage differential between Mexico and the United States is the largest income gap between any two contiguous countries in the world. It is not surprising, therefore, that large migration flows originate in Mexico and move toward the United States, instead of the other way around.
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