This policy note offers motivation and a game plan for achieving a coherent and mutually beneficial labor migration system.1 It argues that migrant workers may make important contributions to economic growth and development in both sending and receiving countries if they find enabling...

International migration is maybe the single most e¤ective way to alleviate poverty at a global level. When a given host country allows more immigrants in, this creates costs and bene…ts for that particular country as well as a positive externality for all those (individuals and governments)...

Studies for major immigrant-receiving countries provide evidence on the comparative economic performance of immigrant classes (skill-, kinship-, and humanitarian-based). Developed countries are increasingly competing for high-skilled immigrants, who perform better in the labor market. However,...

Illegal immigration affects not only EU member states at the Mediterranean Sea but also more Northern states due to open internal borders and onward migration. Northern member states may free-ride on border countries’ enforcement efforts, leading to a sub-optimal level of border control. While...

A growing number of OECD countries are leaning toward adopting quality-selective immigration policies. The underlying assumption behind such policies is that more skill-selection should raise immigrants’ average quality (or education level). This view tends to neglect two important dynamic...

Many OECD countries have changed the rules for immigrants in recent decades, generally making harder to enter and to stay. France is one example. This paper studies the immigrants' response to the 2004 reform of the immigration law, which made it harder for foreigners to obtain resident status....

We study how immigration policies are determined under voting in a model where immigration redistributes income from wages to capital. Migration decisions are endogenous, there exist border enforcement costs and preference for home-country consumption. We model the migration policy as a pure...

The paper addresses the issue of current immigration to Finland in the context of population ageing. It is estimated that about 40% of the present labour force will have withdrawn from the Finnish labour market by the year 2020. The government of this rapidly ageing country is seeking possible...

This paper studies why illegal immigration is widespread. We develop a political agency model in which a politician decides on an immigration target and its enforcement, facing uncertainty on the supply of migrants. Illegal immigration can arise for two reasons: the policy maker may be unable to...

Historical experience suggests that when a period of rising immigration is followed by a sudden slump, this can trigger a policy backlash. This has not occurred in the current recession. This paper examines three links in the chain between the slump and immigration policy. First, although...