Treating migrants as interchangeable economic 'particles' misreads how migration actually happens: flows follow social networks, ties and local institutions, not only wage differentials. Policies or models that ignore network effects (family ties, recruitment, social capital) will systematically mispredict both scale and outcomes.
— If migration is understood as networked behavior rather than a pure labor‑market adjustment, immigration policy, labor forecasting, and economic modeling all need different tools and accountability metrics.
2026.04.04
80% relevant
The article summarizes Borjas’s evidence that migrant outcomes depend on source-country social structures, existing diasporic networks, and the scale of inflows (smaller flows → faster assimilation), which aligns with the idea that migration operates through networked pathways and systemic context rather than as isolated individual moves.
2026.04.04
100% relevant
Article opens by asserting 'Networks of people migrate, not robotic workers' and re‑reads George Borjas to critique open‑borders economists for ignoring networked migration dynamics.
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