Few if any issues in public policy are as muddled and contentious as international migration. While around four million people each year are migrating across national borders, with an estimated stock of 232 million migrants globally as of 2013 (United Nations 2013), the policies governing migration are in disarray. There is no international regime that establishes standards and principles for national migration policies, other than in the case of refugees (migrants escaping persecution). The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and new Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations 2015), and the heated debates over the Syrian refugee crisis, provide an impetus toward establishing global principles. My aim here is to describe some economic and ethical principles that may underpin an international migration regime.

A few economists have made important recent contributions to the debate (including Clemons and Bazzi 2008; Razin, Sadka, and Suwankiri 2011; Collier 2013; and Borjas 2014), but the profession remains far from any theoretical and empirical consensus. Political disagreements over migration are increasingly vitriolic. Public opinion in the United States and Europe is deeply divided as to whether migrants “make the US stronger because of their hard work and talents” or “are a burden because they take jobs, housing and healthcare” (Krogstad 2015).

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