Paper

Monday, March 17

Melle Scholten (University of Virginia)

Title: The Paradox of Migrant Rights and Outward Remittances

Abstract: The number of migrants as share of the world population has steadily increased over the past three decades. In response, most, though not all, migrant host countries have extended additional rights to migrants over this time frame. Evidence suggests that granting migrants additional rights improves their social and economic integration in the host country. However, the literature has paid far less attention to the consequences of improved integration for migrants’ country of origin. This paper argues that granting migrants more rights in the host country could paradoxically lower outward remittances despite greater access to the host labor market. This is because greater rights make permanent stay in the host country more attractive, which decreases migrants’ attachment to the home country, and makes remitting as an investment in origin communities less attractive. Using data on migrant rights and migration openness in 28 advanced democracies, the paper shows that granting migrants more political rights in the host country lowers outward remittance flows, but that expanding economic rights has comparatively little effect. Evidence comes from Imai, Kim and Wang’s (2023) time-series matching estimator. Additional evidence is provided for the following mechanism: increased political rights lead to higher levels of naturalization, severing ties with the country of origin, and diminishing intent to return and incentives to remit.