Migration’s Root Cause Isn’t That Complicated

A study a few years ago by researchers at the Center for Global Development, Harvard’s Kennedy School and the World Bank estimated that a Guatemalan worker could increase his wages 3.1 times by working in the United States. A worker in Mexico would boost wages by a factor of 2.35; a Haitian, by 7.8. A 35-year-old Peruvian man with nine years of schooling working in the formal economy in Peru made an average of $452 a month, they estimated. Working in the US, he would make $1,714.