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Aug 2 2007 9:36AM EDT

Mexico Immigration Datapoints of the Day

Two intriguing datapoints from YouNotSneaky today. (Why is it that I trust an anonymous blog on such things? I'm not entirely clear on that; neither is Tyler Cowen.)

  • Mexicans who wind up back in Mexico after being in US - whether through their own choice or cause they got their asses deported - earn 20% more than the Mexicans who've never been to US.
  • The wage premium (US wages vs. Mexican wages) IS NOT the highest for the poorest parts of Mexico. An immigrant from Chiapas or Oaxaca gets a big bonus compared to what they were making back home, but once you control for education and skill level, an immigrant from Mexico City actually gets, in percentage terms, way way more.

The second datapoint might be weakened by the "once you control for" bit, since it's not clear how that works. If we're just taking a simple ratio here, of US wages divided by the same person's Mexican wages, why do you need any control at all?

But the first datapoint certainly strengthens the case of those who would implement a guest-worker program in the US, especially if it's combined with a rise in programs such as Construmex, where US earnings are used to build a house in Mexico which the remitter is going to want to live in.

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