Why poorer educated Mexican men come work in the U.S.

A columnist in the NY Times says that Mexican men coming to work in the U.S, are relatively poorly educated. “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.” Those will more education can get better jobs back home. They are also largely unmarried. Granting legal status to these workers, per the authors, will encourage more Mexican women to come, marry, and create stable, more productive households. The author make me think more carefully about the imbalances in the Mexican and U.S. labor market and the impact on immigration policy.
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. 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.
The column: Economic Scene. “The Immigration Answer? It’s in Mexico’s Classrooms”


By TYLER COWEN
Published: November 30, 2006
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. 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@gmu.edu.
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