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title: "Increasing immigration is the most effective, least costly…"
date: 2016-10-26
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
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# Increasing immigration is the most effective, least costly…

*October 26, 2016 · Facebook*

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[http://www.cgdev.org/blog/least-you-can-do-global-poverty-better-best-you-can-do](http://www.cgdev.org/blog/least-you-can-do-global-poverty-better-best-you-can-do){target="_blank"}
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Increasing immigration is the most effective, least costly anti-poverty program, by far.\
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\"\...\[L\]etting a worker work in the USA for one year is almost forty times better than the annual gain \[from the best possible in-country development program\]. The average annual household gain from the \[best possible development program\] is \$344 per year. The average wage differential from \[allowing an immigrant to work in the U.S.\] is \$13,119---38 times higher. Even under the doubly optimistic scenario that these programmatic gains last forever and are discounted at 5 percent, the total lifetime value of the best you can do is less than a fourth the gain from just letting a worker work in a high productivity environment for one year.\"\
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[http://www.cgdev.org/blog/least-you-can-do-global-poverty-better-best-you-can-do](http://www.cgdev.org/blog/least-you-can-do-global-poverty-better-best-you-can-do){target="_blank"}
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