The economic consequences of global migration

Interesting interview with Giovanni Peri, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis, discussing the economic impacts of global migration and human mobility. He sees 3 major pressures for increasing migration:

• wage differential (attractiveness of bigger money in West);
• demographics (more young people en developing countries);
• economic (supply of less educated workforce)

In a strange way, Giovanni argues that new migrants in fact elevate the local workforce's work level. At least in the US, that is, where migrants are more naturally embedded in the culture. It works much less in Europe which has a more rigid market structure. Bottom line, according to him, is that more international flexibility would benefit both the receiving countries and the migrants themselves.


Interesting indeed, and according to me an increasing global mobility it is almost inevitable -not only for the forces explained by Giovanni, but also due to new forms of migration such as ecological migration or even young people from the developed world moving to emerging countries (where in time working conditions will be better).