Abstract
This paper assesses the migration-development nexus from a new, relational perspective, providing a closer test of existing theories of cross-national dynamics, including migration and development. Using bilateral data, we assess the relationship between migration (im)balances and wage differentials between pairs of countries in the Americas, from 1970 to 2010. The analysis reveals a positive feedback between international migration and cross-national inequalities. Migration responds strongly to wage gaps, which motivate more uni-directional, or imbalanced migration flows in country-pairs. This relationship is particularly strong in contiguous countries. Similarly, wage gaps respond to migration imbalances, which increase per capita income differences in country-pairs, although the effect of migration on wage differentials is smaller than the effect of wage differentials on migration. Together, the results suggest that the migration-development nexus is characterized by a strong internal momentum.
Highlights
Migration is increasingly touted by key players in the policy realm as a means of addressing inequalities through “development.” As cross-national inequalities persist, questions are emerging about the relationship between migration, development, and inequality
The main effect for GDP per capita indicates that for country-pairs that do not share a border, a 10% increase in the wage gap is associated with a 5.2% increase in the migration imbalance (1.10∧0.533 = 1.052)
This paper assessed the migration-development nexus from a new, relational perspective, using bilateral data to assess the relationship between migration balances and wage differentials between pairs of countries in the Americas, from 1970 to 2010
Summary
Migration is increasingly touted by key players in the policy realm as a means of addressing inequalities through “development.” As cross-national inequalities persist, questions are (re-) emerging about the relationship between migration, development, and inequality. International migrations do not originate “spontaneously” from individual cost-benefit analyses They are produced by political-economic processes that imbalance the lower-income society in relation to the higher-income country “Structural imbalances between newer and older elements eventually produce migratory pressures” Structural imbalancing is relational—it occurs within the context of exchanges between countries, of which migration is one such key exchange This approach provides a closer test of political economy frameworks, as it is able to assess relations between origin and destination countries simultaneously. Data are only available from 1980 to 2000 for all the variables in the full model, reducing the total number of dyads in the analysis to 209 (91% of all possible dyads) and the number of dyad-years to 354 (31% of all possible dyad-years)
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