The Myth of the “Triple Win”: Questioning the Impact of Immigration on Immigrants, Origin, and Destination Countries

Abstract David Leblang and Benjamin Helm's 2023 book, The Ties That Bind. Immigration and the Global Political Economy, provides evidence that state governance affects the levels of emigration as well as international migrants' choice of destination. States that provide higher levels of public goods generate fewer emigrants while states that provide access to citizenship and non-discrimination attract more immigrants. Leblang and Helms then show that migrants, having moved across borders, facilitate international capital flows, including remittances, foreign direct investment, and portfolio investment. These flows, in turn, reduce the number of future emigrants. Their presentation falls short by failing to acknowledge the adjustment costs that may arise because of the temporal and geographic imbalances in generating revenues to expand public goods in the host state to accommodate the new arrivals. Moreover, their policy recommendation for enlarging temporary labor migration programs fails to acknowledge longstanding criticisms of these plans because of their potential for worker exploitation and the tendency of temporary migrants to remain in the destination country.