US: The Immigration Answer? It's in Mexico's Classrooms

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the NYTimes,

ECONOMIC SCENE; The Immigration Answer? It's in Mexico's Classrooms
By TYLER COWEN

Poorly functioning Mexican and Latino educational systems are a central
problem behind current immigration dilemmas, and the United States is
partly responsible. If the United States took in a higher ratio of legal
immigrants, and required more education, the entire North American region
would be better off. A high school diploma brings higher wages in Mexico,
but in the United States the more educated migrants do not earn noticeably
more than those who have less education. Education does not much raise the
productivity of hard physical labor. The result is that the least educated
Mexicans have the most reason to cross the border. In addition, many
Mexicans, knowing they may someday go to the United States, see less
reason to invest in education.

Mexican immigrants used to have higher-than-average levels of education,
but today the average male Mexican migrant has lower-than-average
education by Mexican standards. David McKenzie of the World Bank, and
Hillel Rapoport, a lecturer in economics at Bar-Ilan University in Israel,
document this shift and show that extensive social networks of fellow
countrymen make it increasingly easy for male migrants with little
education to find apartments and jobs in the United States
(''Self-selection patterns in Mexico-U.S. migration:  The role of
migration networks,'' at
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/Self--selection--patterns--in--Mexico--U--S--migration.pdf).
Less-educated migrants are more likely to bring crime and social problems,
and they are less likely to assimilate.

In contrast to the men, female arrivals from Mexico still have
above-average levels of education for their gender. A woman who migrates
is most likely to have eight to nine years of education. It appears that
(relatively) educated Mexican women are more willing to break away from
their families. Furthermore, Mexican women are less likely to work in
agriculture or at hard labor, so education brings a higher wage in the
United States. In other words, the dynamic for female Mexican migration is
a more positive one. Nonetheless, illegal Mexican immigrants to the United
States are usually male, if only because crossing the border is perilous
and physically demanding. This gender imbalance worsens the problems of
immigration. Large numbers of young Mexican men have scant prospects for
marriage or family in the United States. Men who marry tend to earn more
money, behave more responsibly, commit less crime and assimilate more
readily. Much of the so-called ''immigration problem'' stems from the
illegality of immigration rather than from immigration itself.

Unfortunately, we cannot expect a wealthier Mexico to resolve migration
problems, at least not within the short- or even medium-run. The evidence
suggests that good times in Mexico give the poor the means to leave, while
keeping the better-educated males at home in good jobs. A better
immigration policy would tighten the border, while allowing in more legal
immigrants from Mexico and other Latin countries, and require higher
levels of education. Young Mexicans would see greater reason to invest in
education, to the benefit of all Mexican society, not just those who cross
the border. Sixteen percent of the Mexican labor force is working in the
United States at any point in time, and, of course, earning higher average
wages than laborers in Mexico, so the impact of American policy on Mexico
is significant. The less educated Mexicans could be some of the biggest
winners from immigration reform.

In the United States, employers have a greater incentive to train legal
Mexican workers and combine their labors more effectively with capital
investment; when the workers are illegal, employers create only the most
makeshift of circumstances. The legality and thus physical ease of
immigration would also encourage the arrival of more Mexican women,
thereby remedying the gender imbalance and encouraging assimilation. In
the short run, the greater number of immigrant children would raise costs
in the United States for education and health care, but in the longer run
those children would produce goods and services and pay taxes. Taking in a
higher proportion of women would relieve the migration-driven gender
imbalance of rural Mexico. It is common for villages to have many
unmarried young women, but virtually no young men. The women who are
married often go without their husbands for years. The remaining men are
more likely to treat their women badly, knowing they can always find
another partner.

Shutting the Mexican border is probably not possible, and it would
paralyze American businesses and agriculture. A guest worker program
without restrictions on education might be better than doing nothing, but
would not solve the negative educational dynamic. Many guest workers would
stay on past the expiration of their visas, again shifting the ratio back
toward illegal immigration. Furthermore, workers tied to a single job, as
is the case for most guest worker programs, are unlikely to put down
roots. The United States needs the courage to legalize a higher number of
immigrant arrivals. The problems with current illegal migration are real.
But most Americans benefit from Latino migration, even of the illegal
kind, and they could benefit much more from legal and better-educated
arrivals.

Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University and
co-writes a blog at www.marginalrevolution.com. He can be reached at
tcowen at gmu.edu.

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F10610F93A5A0C738FDDA80994DE404482
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