How does emigration affect tax preferences in migrant-sending countries? Experiencing public services in a high tax-capacity destination may reduce support for tax increases by throwing fiscal failure at home into stark relief (the socialization hypothesis). Alternatively, migrants’ exclusion from certain public services may increase desire to fund these services in migrant origin countries (the exclusion hypothesis). We test these competing hypotheses with an online survey experiment in Mexico and explore how variation in US healthcare access influences the fiscal policy preferences of migrant households. Especially returning migrant households are more supportive of taxation when tax revenue is earmarked for healthcare, a service to which many Mexican immigrants in the US lack access. It is migrants’ exclusion from, rather than their socialization into, the fiscal contract in destination countries that influences fiscal policy preferences in their countries of origin.

Abstract

The Migration Cost Surveys (MCS) project is a joint initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). The project was initiated to support methodological work on developing a new Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator (10.7.1) on worker-paid recruitment costs. The surveys of migrant workers conducted in multiple bilateral corridors between 2015 and 2017 provide new systematic evidence of financial and some non-financial costs incurred by workers to obtain jobs abroad. The compiled dataset is divided into two waves (2015 and 2016) based on the questionnaire version used in the surveys.

Geographic coverage

Multinational coverage: - Ethiopia - India - Nepal - Pakistan - Philippines - Vietnam - Guatemala - Honduras - El Salvador

Analysis unit

KNOMAD-ILO Migration Costs Surveys (KNOMAD-ILO MCS) have the following unit of analysis: individuals

Universe

Surveys of migrants from the following corridors are included:

• Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia • India to Qatar • Nepal to Qatar • Pakistan to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates • Philippines to Qatar • Vietnam to Malaysia • Guatemala, Honduras and El-Salvador to Mexico

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

All surveys conducted for this project used either convenience or snowball sampling. Sample enrollment was restricted to migrants primarily employed in low-skilled positions, who departed to the destination country, typically no more than 5 years prior to the interview year. All but two surveys using the 2015 questionnaire were conducted in the country of origin by interviewing returning migrants.The exceptions were the surveys of Vietnamese migrants in Malaysia and migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El-Salvador in Mexico, which were administered in the destination countries (Malaysia and Mexico, respectively). Their customized questionnaires are worded in present tense when it comes to various aspect of stay in the destination country. The content of the variables remains analogous to the surveys of returnees. Please refer to Annex Table 1 of the 2015 KNOMAD-ILO MCS User Guide for a summary description of the included samples in the 2015 KNOMAD-ILO MCS dataset.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

The 2015 KNOMAD-ILO Migration Costs Surveys consists of 6 survey modules:

A. Respondent Information B. Information on costs for current job C. Borrowing money for the foreign job D. Job search efforts and opportunity costs E. Work in foreign country F. Job environment

Sampling error estimates

n/a

Data appraisal

n/a

Money transfers to other countries outside the United States were nearly ** times higher in 2021 than money received. Remittances refer to cross-border payments to family or friends and are often associated with migrant workers sending money back home to friends or relatives back in their communities of origin. It is estimated that about *** in ***** people worldwide are involved with remittances - substantially impacting payment behavior in, especially, Asia and Latin America. For the United States, the top five recipient countries for remittances in 2021 included Mexico, India, Guatemala, the Philippines, and China. The five main sources for remittances in the U.S. were Mexico, Canada, the UK, Puerto Rico, and Germany.