Chapter 4. Beyond Remittances: the Effect of Migration on Mexican Households. In "International Migration, Remittances & the Brain Drain"
Author(s): D. J. McKenzie
This chapter estimates the overall impact of Mexican migration to the United States on several household outcomes, and shows that migration has a number of impacts that are distinct from the direct effects of remittances. Migration is shown to improve child health outcomes, lowering infant mortality and increasing birth weights. While some of the improvement in health outcomes is likely to arise from the increase in household income after remittances, it is shown that migration has at least two additional impacts on child health. A second role for migration, other than through the direct effect of remittances, is in the creation of networks of individuals with migration experience. The third role for migration studied in this chapter is its impact on education attainment in Mexico. Education is often seen as one of the areas in which remittances can play a positive role, allowing households to pay for school fees and alleviate liquidity constraints, which prevent parents from attaining the desired level of schooling for their children. However, migration may have other, less positive, impacts on schooling. This chapter provides some preliminary evidence that children age 16 to 18 in migrant households have lower levels of schooling than children in non-migrant households.