Migration as positional goods shock

Migration should be treated not only as labor‑market supply but as a shock to scarce, positional goods — for example political representation, regulated housing, and status‑sensitive public services — that do not expand to absorb newcomers. Economists who model only wages and GDP miss these distributional and institutional spillovers, producing misleading policy advice. — Reframing migration this way changes policy trade‑offs: it makes political cohesion, positional scarcity (housing, seats), and cultural decision‑making central considerations for immigration limits and settlement policy.