Mexican President Felipe Calderon is currently on a visit to the United States. Cleary one of the big issues for his visit is immigration. Like President Calderon many Mexican immigrants both legal and illegal stay here temporarily. In fact before increased border protection nearly half of Mexican migrants returned to their home country in less than a year.
When President Calderon returns back to Mexico next week he will (likely) still have the same job. However, after staying months in the US as temporary workers will typical Mexican migrants who return have the same job or one just as good when? Does migration hurt a worker's ability to find jobs since they are not in contact with other people or could they learn new skills in the United States?
{SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION ALERT}
Well in a recent paper I co-authored with Robert Gitter, my father, and Douglas Southgate. “The Impact of Return Migration in Mexico” published in this month’s Estudios Economicos the economic journal of the Colegio de México. We find that working age male return migrants, those who left Mexico and came back, had similar employment rates and incomes to those who never left. More simply those who left and came back did about as well in terms of jobs as those who never left.
If you would like to read the article here is the link.
Oh and welcome to America Senor Presidente!
Showing posts with label return migration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label return migration. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Monday, December 17, 2007
Take the Money and Run to Punjab and Back
England is trying something a little outside the box to decrease the number of immigrants in the country, paying them to return to their home country. As described in this article, the British government is providing free plane tickets and cash incentives of £500 ($1000) when the immigrant gets on the plane, and £500 ($1000) when they return to help start a business. The government points out this is cheaper then £11,000 on average it costs to forcibly deport someone.
The problem is that people are gamin the system from the article “… asylum seekers were playing the system. I met several asylum seekers who had applied for the IOM’s financial assistance programme and were already planning their return to Britain once they got their business established in their country of origin.”
This type of program would seem to have little potential in the United States particularly for Mexican migrants, since about ½ of migrants to the US return to Mexico anyways within the year and there is lots of going back and forth between the border.
The problem is that people are gamin the system from the article “… asylum seekers were playing the system. I met several asylum seekers who had applied for the IOM’s financial assistance programme and were already planning their return to Britain once they got their business established in their country of origin.”
This type of program would seem to have little potential in the United States particularly for Mexican migrants, since about ½ of migrants to the US return to Mexico anyways within the year and there is lots of going back and forth between the border.
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