The Migration of Labor

This book models afresh labour migration and various phenomena and processes associated with it. It builds on three premises. First, that though migrants are often individual agents, there is more to labour migration than an individualistic behaviour. Migration by one person can be undertaken in pursuit of rational optimizing behaviour by a group of persons such as the family. Second, there is more to labour migration than a response to wage differentials. Third, a great many migratory phenomena would not have occured if the set of markets and financial institutions were perfect and complete. The book attempts to explain labour migration in the light of these three premises and their interactions. It offers new insights on why and when entities such as families may find it optimal to behave strategically, to act simultaneously in, and to distribute their human capital across, several markets, and to sequence their actions in a particular fashion. The book demonstrates how migration is ingeniously and efficiently harnessed to assume a variety of tasks.
It also takes a novel look at how migratory outcomes are fed back into and modify the very market environments that stimulated migration.