Immigration Control & Long-Run Population Welfare

The current study assesses the effects of immigration control on the welfare of the current and future population of a host economy. A theoretical model of a small open economy populated with overlapping generations of heterogeneous agents is used to show that skillfavouring immigration policies are, under rather permissive conditions, welfare depriving for the overall population. However, the policy-setting generation is shown to benefit from immigration control, thus decreasing the welfare for the future population.