Migration Runs on Networks, Not Particles

People don’t migrate as interchangeable labor units; they move through kin and community networks that shape who leaves, where they settle, and what economic effects follow. Treating migrants like 'economic particles' misleads forecasts about wages, assimilation, and regional impacts. This helps explain why free-trade didn’t equalize wages and why some economists wrongly prescribe more labor mobility instead of revising their models. — It reframes immigration modeling and policy by elevating social-capital and network dynamics over atomized labor assumptions that drive many elite arguments.