Public Property and the Effects of Migration upon Other Residents of the Migrants' Countries of Origin and Destination

When a man migrates from one country to another, he abandons his share of public property--the use of roads and schools, the rights to a share of revenue from minerals in the public domain, and so on--in the former country and acquires a share of public property in the latter, conferring a benefit upon the remaining residents of the country from which he comes and imposing a cost upon the original residents of the country to which he goes. This proposition is developed with the aid of an ordinary marginal product of labor curve, the "public property" effect is contrasted with other sources of costs and benefits of migration, and an attempt is made to supply a rough and ready estimate of the magnitudes involved.