Politics & Governance / Public Policy / Immigration & Refugee Policy

Are Mexican Immigrants the Best or Worst? New Evidence on Self-Selection

Robert Kaestner, Ofer Malamud

This video breaks down a groundbreaking study by Robert Kaestner and Ofer Malamud, published as an NBER working paper in 2010, that challenges common assumptions about who migrates from Mexico to the United States. Using data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS), the researchers found that Mexican immigrants are not the least educated or the most skilled—they fall in the middle. They also discovered that cognitive ability makes no difference, and that migration costs play a huge role in who moves. Watch to understand the real story behind migration patterns and what it means for policy debates.