From the article:
The Trump administration continues to push for large cuts to foreign aid, prompting sharp criticism from lawmakers as well as former military leaders. The president also calls for U.S. aid to focus on “friends,” despite widespread criticism of this proposed change. Unlike these much-discussed policy proposals, there has been little public focus on the possibility that the government will reallocate aid to address migration concerns at the expense of other policy priorities. Yet this is a likely outcome, in the United States and across many donor countries.
...Michael Clemens and Hannah Postel show that this approach is unlikely to be effective. At many levels of development, slight increases in well-being lead to an increase, rather than a decrease, in the likelihood of emigration. As the authors note, “greater economic opportunity at home might reduce the incentive for workers to invest in migrating abroad for work, but also increases their ability to make that investment.”
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