Senior fellow Michael Clemens was featured in a Univision article on the benefits of migration.
From the Article
If political leaders around the world are looking for a source of world economic growth, they should consider the impact of global migration in the economy.
A study conducted by the Center for Global Development in Washington D.C. estimates that the gains of eliminating barriers to labor mobility could be in the range of 50% to 150% of world GDP and that it could be measured in “tens of trillions of dollars.”
“Migration barriers massively impoverish the world,” said Michael Clemens, the author of the study and Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development. “Even a small relaxation of those barriers would add more value to the world economy than the elimination of all our policy barriers to trade and all barriers to all kind of capital movements.”
Clemens compares the migration of skilled workers from underdeveloped to developed countries to the internal migration of skilled workers or college graduates within the United States.
“If you are a skilled worker from a small U.S. state you have pretty much the same propensity to leave that state, and move to another U.S state, that you have if you are a skilled worker from a small developed country to move to bigger developed country.”