Environmental Economics

Looks like the immigration dialogue might need to change:

For the first time in more than four decades, more Mexican immigrants are returning to their home country than coming to the United States, according to a report released Thursday. 

 Philip Martin, Ag and Resource economist at UC Davis, in an article in The Economist in 2004 laid out the economics of immigration and exmigration succinctly:

“If people were goods, the solution to different wage and employment levels would be obvious: encourage the transfer of ‘surplus' people from poorer to richer nation states, which should benefit individuals whose incomes rise, increase global GDP, and promote convergence in wages and opportunities between sending and receiving areas that eventually reduces migration pressures.”