Migration, Poverty and Human Development

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Migration, Poverty and Human Development
Luis F. Lopez-Calva UNDP, Latin America and the
Caribbean
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Contents

• Migration and human development
• Migration and local conditions
• Migration abroad and human development
• Migration and remittances
• Migratory policy in Mexico

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• Migration
• and
• Human Development

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The importance of migration

• 11 million people born in Mexico lived in the US
  in 2005
• Remittances were 3.5 of the GDP in 2005
• 2.7 of the population changed residence from
  one State to another in 2005

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Migration and Local Conditions
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• The poorest people do not represent a high
  migration group

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Probability of migration and per capita income
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Poverty and migration

• The poor are not the main group that migrates
• but migration among the poor is increasing
• The poor migrate in response to economic shocks
• but as social networks expand the poor migrate
  as a planned decision

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Migration as an individual decision

• In 2005, almost 11 million people born in Mexico
  lived permanently or temporarily in US.
• Evidence shows that the principal trigger to
  migrate is the development gap between regions.
• According to the theory of Spatial Localization
  differentials include not only salaries but also
  another indicators of living conditions in
  general.

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Migration as an individual decision

• The migration decision reveals the evaluation of
  cost-benefit individuals make to several
  dimensions like economic welfare, cultural
  change, family welfare, social and community
  rights.
• However, the migration decision involves
  imperfect information and idiosyncratic
  conditions that affect the final decision.

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Cost of Migration

• Practically all migrants crossing without
  documents need help from a coyote (pollero).
• The average cost of a coyote in 2003 was
  US1,600.
• The relationship between the demand for coyotes
  and their cost is controversial though it has
  been found that elasticity is low. This suggests
  that coyote price could be a second order
  parameter.
• This argument supports the hypothesis that
  policies of border tightening do not have the
  expected effect in the reduction of migratory
  flows

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Cost of Migration
Price and percentage of migrants using
coyote (migrants crossing without documents)
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Effects of Border Tightening

• Border tightening policies since the 90s DID NOT
  reduced migration flows
• The main effects are
• People stay longer, they do not go back
  (reduction in circular seasonal migration)
• They bring their families
• The cost of migration (coyotes and other costs)
  increases
• Routes change and conditions worsen

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Migration and Education

• Historically, migrants have, on average, higher
  levels of education than those non-migrants in
  their communities, though lower than in the
  receiving places in the United States
• The above is especially true for women, a
  population group where migrants have a schooling
  differential higher than in the case of men with
  respect to those non-migrants within their own
  communities
• Migration tends to reduce inequality in levels
  of education, at least in the short-run

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Migration and Education

• Remittances promote greater investment in primary
  and secondary education for the sons of migrant
  families, with a favorable bias for girls and
• Migration discourages investment in middle-high
  and high levels of education (individuals of 16
  to 18 years of age) in communities with a migrant
  tradition.

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Migration and Health

• The relationship between migration an health is
  overly complex.
• It is necessary to examine the process in three
  different moments the origin, the route to the
  north, and the destination.
• Migration has negative consequences for the
  family dynamics of those staying (depressive
  syndromes, anxiety and other mental disorders).
• Remittances have been shown to have a positive
  effect on childrens health (lower infant
  mortality and higher weight at birth)

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Migration and Remittances
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Remittances and development

• There is an inverse U-shaped relationship
  between human development and migratory intensity.

Human development index and migratory intensity
index by municipality, 2000.
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Income and Remittances

• The states receiving more income from
  remittances as a share of its GDP are Michoacan
  and Zacatecas, followed by Oaxaca and Guerrero

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Program 3x1

• The program 3x1 for migrants is created in 2002
  by the Mexican Federal government.
• Supporting initiatives of productive projects
  and social infrastructure from migrants abroad.
• Beneficiaries are people living in poverty in
  any of the 31 states of Mexico.
• Projects are funded as follows 25 from federal
  Govt 25 from migrant organizations 50 from
  local and state governments.

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Final Comments
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Final Comments

• Migration is a way of exercising the effective
  freedom of people.
• Public policy should favor that the exercising
  of such an option is a legitimate way of
  individual development.
• The purpose of any development strategy must be
  the raising of welfare and freedom levels for
  concrete individuals in a sustainable way.

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Final Comments

• The most commendable migratory policy is a
  strategy of sustainable local development
• Only convergence through regional development
  strategies can eventually stabilize migration
  flows