Inequality and schooling responses to globalization forces: lessons from history

Given the intensity of the current debate about the impact of globalization on brain drain in the Third World and inequality in the First World, it might be useful to look at these forces during the first global century, ending in 1914. This paper reviews what we know about the impact of trade and mass migration on low-wage, labor-abundant European economies and high-wage, labor-scarce overseas New World economies. It reviews the distribution impact everywhere in the Atlantic economy, the extent of the European brain drain, and the schooling responses in both Europe and the United States.Emigration and immigration ; International trade ; Economic development ; Developing countries ; Human capital ; Globalization ; Education

Political implications of U.S. public attitudes toward immigration on the immigration policymaking process

Three developments in U.S. public attitudes have emerged since the 2001 terrorist attacks. First, Americans have shifted their thinking about the salience or importance of immigration issues. Second, they have changed their level of attentiveness to immigration as a national problem. Third, as awareness of immigration issues and divisiveness in political parties have increased, they have begun to use immigration as an evaluative criterion for vote choice. ; This study analyzes the causes and implications of these shifts in public attitudes toward immigration on the U.S. political landscape. Specifically, I address how changes in public attitudes have political implications for the 2006 midterm elections and on current policy reform efforts. Real-world conditions shape U.S. immigration policy and the country’s ability to control unwanted migration. The impact of these real-world conditions cannot be understood without taking into consideration the role of U.S. public attitudes in the policy process. I argue that the impact of these real-world conditions on immigration is mediated by public perceptions of these factors.Emigration and immigration ; Public policy

Commentary on session II: The politics of migration and trade

Summary and discussion of the two papers in this session: "U.S.-Mexican migration cooperation: obstacles and opportunities" by Marc R. Rosenblum; "Political implications of U.S. public attitudes toward immigration on the immigration policymaking process" by Valerie F. HuntEmigration and immigration ; International trade ; Public policy

Migration, trade, and development: an overview

Simple, neoclassical economic models predict that prices should drive factors such as labor and capital across regions and countries toward their most valuable use. As this happens, developing countries, which are typically labor-rich and capital-scarce, should experience more rapid growth, higher income, and eventually convergence to industrial world levels of well-being. This process is happening slowly in some cases, but in other cases not at all. Do migration and trade speed this convergence? If so, how? If not, why?Emigration and immigration ; International trade ; Economic development ; Developing countries

Remittances and their microeconomic impacts: evidence from Latin America

The flow of remittances to Latin American and Caribbean countries is the highest and fastest growing in the world, exceeding foreign direct investment and net official development assistance to the region. Remittances surpass tourism income and almost always exceed revenues from the largest export in these countries, accounting for at least 10 percent of gross domestic product in six of them. Furthermore, remittances are the least volatile source of foreign exchange in many of these economies, thus playing a crucial role in economic development. ; In what follows, I provide a general overview of the remitting patterns of migrants to the U.S. who are from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru. Subsequently, I summarize some microeconomic evidence of the impact that remittances have on various spheres of economic development, as is the case with employment, business ownership, education, and health care investments in two LAC economies. These findings underscore the importance of remittances as a resource for the accumulation of human capital investments in education and health and as a determinant of employment patterns in remittance-receiving households in developing economies.Emigration and immigration ; Economic development ; Developing countries ; Emigrant remittances

Commentary on session I: The migration, trade, and development nexus

Summary and discussion of the three papers in this session: "The trade, migration, and development nexus" by Philip L. Martin; "External and internal determinants of development" by Thomas Osang; and "Globalization and Mexican labor markets" by Raymond Robertson.Emigration and immigration ; International trade ; Economic development ; Developing countries

External and internal determinants of development

As Rodrik, Subramanian, and Trebbi (2004) point out, factors that affect economic development can be classified using a two-tier approach. Based on a standard production function, inputs such as labor and physical and human capital directly affect per capita income. Much of the empirical cross-country growth literature has focused on these covariates. But the factors themselves are the product of deeper and more fundamental determinants and, thus, are at best proximate factors of economic development. The deeper determinants fall into two broad categories: internal and external. Among the former, institutions and geography have received the most attention, while international trade has been the focus of the latter. The main purpose of this paper is to add an external factor, namely measures of migration, to the existing geography-institutions-trade setup and to evaluate its contribution to the observed differences in per capita income across countries.Emigration and immigration ; International trade ; Economic development ; Developing countries ; Geography

The relationship between international migration, trade, and development: some paradoxes and findings

The interactions among trade, international migration, and economic development in migrant-sending areas are complex, and paradoxes abound. This paper summarizes global trends in world migration and remittances, discusses some paradoxes surrounding the trade-migration-development relationship, and reports findings from new research on Mexico-to-U.S. migration, using data from rural Mexico. It concludes with some thoughts about designing policies to raise the development potential of remittances in migrant-sending areas.Emigration and immigration ; International trade ; Economic development ; Developing countries ; Emigrant remittances ; Mexico

Commentary on session III: U.S.-Mexico remittances: recent trends and measurement issues

Summary and discussion of the three papers in this session: "Leveraging remittances for development" by Dilip Ratha; "Remittances and their microeconomic impacts: evidence from Latin America" by Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes; and "The relationship between international migration, trade, and development: some paradoxes and findings" by J. Edward Taylor. ; The rest of this commentary explores recent trends in U.S.?Mexico remittances, explaining how they are measured and comparing them with forecasts of remittances based on an econometric model and with trends in other developing countries.Emigration and immigration ; International trade ; Economic development ; Developing countries ; Emigrant remittances ; Econometric models ; Mexico

Commentary on session IV: The historical relationship between migration, trade, and development

Commentary on the three papers in this session: "Inequality and schooling responses to globalization forces: lessons from history" by Jeffrey G. Williamson; "Trade, migration, and economic development: the risks and rewards of openness" by James F. Hollifield; and "Migration, trade, capital, and development: substitutes, complements, and policies" by Gustav Ranis.Emigration and immigration ; International trade ; Economic development