ECO610 Discussion 2 Week 1 Immigration

The big winners are the immigrants because they receive a higher payment for their labour than the wages they would earn back home. They are essentially transferring their purchasing power from Mexico to the United States. This means that the country receiving the immigrants is better off, as they can buy more goods and services at a lower cost. The loss here is Mexico, which lost taxes on the higher earnings.

The loss comes to Mexico because their nation loses money on each immigrant; this money would naturally be spent elsewhere rather than in Mexico. If each Mexican immigrant earned the same wages as their hometown, they would stay in Mexico and not just move to another country. However, since Mexicans receive higher wages from immigrants living in America, more Mexicans will be willing to move to America for a better standard of living and working conditions than back home.

With borders open and no restriction on migration, the effect would be that more people from around the world would want to migrate to the United States. The United States is a wealthy nation with many resources and higher standards of living, so this is naturally where people will want to go. Since it is now open, there are not as many restrictions or requirements as in the past. The argument against this is that a developing country may get flooded with immigrants. This can cause a problem because there are no jobs for them; therefore, they will resort to crime and other immoral activities for money.

References

Camarota, S. A. (2021). Immigration From Mexico. Assessing the impact on the United.