Friday, January 16, 2009

Not much return migration

The Migration Policy Institute just released a report arguing that there is no mass movement of immigrants back to their countries of origin, an issue I've written several posts about. It makes quite a few interesting points, but I will just highlight a few.

--return migration appears linked with the ease of circulation and developments in the country of origin rather than the U.S. economy or enforcement efforts.

--the U.S. economy and enforcement seem to be more linked to a slowdown of people coming rather than people leaving.

--one reason immigrants (especially recently arrived) are more likely to stay is that they are more willing than the native born to shift locations to remain employed.

4 comments:

Michelle 10:54 AM  

Have you looked at this report? Since I seem to have abandoned blogging temporarily, I thought I'd pass it along.

Greg Weeks 7:54 AM  

I saw the news stories, but hadn't had time to look more into it. My first reaction is that the military does worst case scenario studies all the time, but on the other hand the leaking suggests it is an effort to ensure that Merida money keeps getting disbursed.

Joshua Griffin 10:09 AM  

I agree that the numbers leaving may be exaggerated, but the amount of remittance dollars has declined. I am good friends with a couple guys who own una tienda, and they say that the number is nearing half of the amount sent in Oct, Nov, Dec of last year. The point that immigrants are more likely to relocate is a good one.

Greg Weeks 11:06 AM  

Though remittances to El Salvador in 2008 were up from 2007.

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