How to Attract Immigrants? Pull Factors in Past Theories

Speranta Dumitru ()
Additional contact information
Speranta Dumitru: Ceped - UMR 196 - Centre Population et Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - INSERM - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale - UPCité - Université Paris Cité - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, UFR droit, économie et gestion [Sociétés et Humanités] - Université Paris Cité - UPCité - Université Paris Cité

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: The push-pull theory is regarded as a modern framework in migration studies. This article challenges this view by tracing debates on attracting and retaining foreigners back to the seventeenth century. It compares four major economic theories and their policy prescriptions concerning immigration. Mercantilism held that to be wealthy, a sovereign state should possess gold and a large population. The article explores three other theories: cameralism, physiocracy, and classical economics. While cameralists held similar views to mercantilists, physiocrats and classical economists fundamentally disagreed. But did their theoretical disputes translate into divergent immigration prescriptions? This article shows that despite disagreements on wealth, money, and population, the four theories converged on an "overlapping consensus" regarding migration. After reviewing the major authors of each school, I reconstruct their arguments around three dilemmas. First, should migrants receive equal rights with natives or be privileged over them? Second, what is the nature of pull factors: are they political (rights, tolerance, freedom, participation), economic (fiscal relief, subventions), or social (cultural ethos, language, respect), geographical (climate, distance, mobility infrastructures)? Thirdly, what are the limits of attracting immigrants: are there numerical limits or socio-professional requirements, like skills selection? Although answers were similar across theories, these debates remain understudied in contemporary migration theory.

Keywords: Physiocracy; Classical economics; Demography; Population; Cameralism; Mercantilism; History of economic ideas; Immigration; Pull Factors; Migration; Emigration; Push-pull; Freedom of Movement; Skilled Migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05-18
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05625868v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2026, ⟨10.1007/s12134-026-01392-z⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-05625868v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05625868

DOI: 10.1007/s12134-026-01392-z

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().