A common complaint against migration is that it deprives the sending country of vital talent. Research from Rice University disputes that notion, however, and finds that high-skilled immigration from Mexico to the United States actually benefits both countries.

The paper explains that high-skilled migrants are typically a varied bunch and can include students, researchers, CEOs and a plethora of specialists in all manner of fields that play a crucial role in the knowledge economy.

“Between 1990 and 2017, the growth rate of skilled (with an undergraduate degree) and high-skilled (with a graduate degree) migration to the U.S. was more than double the growth rate of low-skilled (less than an undergraduate degree) migration,” the researcher explains.

Filling the gap

The researcher explains that these highly-skilled migrants fill a crucial gap in the labor market in the United States, especially in areas such as healthcare, financial services, and software development.

This gap in the labor market has multiple reasons, including low birth rates, an aging workforce, and a lack of investment in training and development. The hole has been plugged to some extent by migration from the south. This trend has been boosted by the fact that migrants tend to be younger than the native population, and the researcher believes they are also more likely to move to areas of the country with the best job prospects. It’s a flow that has slowed in recent years, however, and this is a trend that is likely to continue.

“The U.S. nowadays accounts for lower shares of high-skilled migrants and international students than it did in the past,” the researcher explains. “In fact, skilled labor shortages resulting from a pronounced information technologies and software development shift in innovation led U.S. multinational corporations to search abroad for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workers.”

Benefiting Mexico

Interestingly, the author also believes that the flow of migrants from Mexico into the United States also benefits the Mexican economy, in direct counter to the frequent accusation that rich countries plunder talent from poorer countries.

They argue that high-skilled Mexican migrants share vital knowledge, such as pricing strategies or technical know-how, which can help to plug vital gaps that often result from deeply ingrained institutional voids in developing industries in Mexico.

“In other words, it is not all about monetary incentives or corporate interests, but also about the passion for knowledge generation and diffusion,” the author concludes.