International Migration and Trade: A Multi-Disciplinary Synthesis

Abstract

This paper examines the inter-relationship between migration of persons and international trade in goods and services. Trade and immigration policies, their effects and inter-dependence are examined from a variety of viewpoints across several disciplines, and an attempt is made to offer the outline of a synthesis. The relationship between trade and migration policies is of immediate relevance to policy-makers. Unless such policies were coordinated, lawmakers might find that the desired effects of say, immigration policy might well be undone by independently chosen trade policy and conversely. The experiences of the United States and the European Union are instructive in this regard. Both trade and immigration policies were under the competence of a single supranational institution in Europe and the European Union contemplated concurrent free movement of both goods and persons across national borders, at least within the inner-core countries. In the United States on the other hand, trade and immigration policies have remained de-coupled; trade liberalization has occurred at different times than immigration policy reforms, and in general, while trade policy has been liberalized, immigration policy has been gradually tightened. Careful examination of the inter-relationship between these policies is desirable in order to assess the differing policy responses chosen across continents and their implications for calibration of future policies.