Immigration Policy, Remittances, and Growth in the Migrant-Sending Country

Sylvain Dessy () and Tiana Rambeloma

Cahiers de recherche from CIRPEE

Abstract: As evidence accumulates to expose the ineffectiveness of foreign aid, there are increasing calls for rich countries to open up their immigration policies so as to enable migrants' remittances to substitute for foreign aid as a growth-stimulant in poor, migrant-sending countries. In this paper, we use an endogenous growth model to argue that the growth effects of transnational migration and remittances are entirely mediated by the human capital profile of emigrants, as determined by immigration policy at the destination country. Quantitatively, we find that when immigration policy at the destination country provokes a "brain drain", growth is negatively impacted in the sending country despite remittances. The reverse is true when immigration policy targets workers with low levels of human capital.

Keywords: Remittances; migration; growth; education; general equilibrium; child labor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J61 O11 O15 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-fdg and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0915

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