International Migration and the Global Economic Order : An Interview

Solimano, Andres

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGGREGATE DEMAND;    AIR;    ALIENS;    ASYLUM SEEKERS;    AUTONOMY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2720
RP-ID  :  WPS2720

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Global capitalism, vintage early 21stcentury, favors the movement of goods and capital acrossnational borders more than it does the movement of people.It was not always this way. The first wave of globalization,in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th,came with massive international migration. Around 60 millionpeople migrated from Europe to the countries of the NewWorld (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the UnitedStates) over a period of 40 years or so. In a sense, currentglobalization has a smaller degree of "cosmopolitanliberalism" in the dimension of internationalmigration. While there is consensus on the benefits of anopen trade regime and relatively liberal capital movements,that consensus rarely extends to the free movement ofpeople. Solimano examines this difference in the"freedom to become global" by looking at bothstandard trade theory, basically the Mundell theorem oftrade and migration as substitutes, and the ensuinganalytical developments and empirical evidence around theMundell result. He then looks at this asymmetry intoday's global economic order from the perspective offreedom, individual rights, and transnational citizenship,as well as the potential of international migration toreduce global inequality. Preventing factor (labor or humancapital) movements from lower- to higher-productivityactivities (countries) may entail a global welfare loss interms of forgone world output (although the distributiveconsequences for sending and receiving countries vary).International migration tends to reduce income disparitiesacross countries. But it can increase inequality withinlabor-scarce receiving countries by moderating the growth ofwages, because of the associated increase in the supply oflabor. In contrast, in sending countries emigration can havean equalizing effect by reducing the supply of labor andraising wages. Still, international migration is bound tohave a positive effect on long-run growth in receivingcountries by keeping labor costs down, increasing theprofitability of investment, and raising national savings.For sending countries, the impact on growth depends on thepool of labor and human resources that emigrate. Inlabor-abundant developing countries with chronicunemployment (or labor surplus), the growth-depressingeffects of emigration can be small (compensated in part bylabor remittances). Nevertheless, the emigration of highlyeducated people, professionals, and national investors canhave a detrimental effect on long-run income levels andgrowth rates for sending countries. From a globalperspective, however, world output would be expected toincrease if people could freely move across the planet fromareas of low labor productivity to areas of high laborproductivity. From the viewpoint of global economicfreedoms, the result would be equally positive.