Migration Is Networked

Migration flows are best understood as movements of social networks and relationships, not as transfers of interchangeable labor units. Treating migrants as fungible economic 'particles' leads models and policies to mispredict outcomes and miss social‑capital effects on assimilation and local labour markets. — Framing migration as networked rather than particulate shifts how policymakers evaluate open‑borders claims, enforcement, and integration policy and undercuts simplistic economic models that justify large‑scale labor inflows.