Foreign Interests: Immigration and the Political Economy of Foreign Aid.

Leblang, D. & Blodgett Bermeo, Sarah. 2009. Annual Meeting of the International Political Economy Society

This paper examines the link between immigration and foreign aid. Recipient countries with moremigrants living in a donor, on average, receive more foreign aid from the donor. We find evidence thatdonors use aid as a tool in their broader immigration policy, seeking to slow unwanted immigration.However, we also find evidence that diaspora communities with greater political voice successfullytranslate that voice into more aid for their countries of origin. There is evidence that these two effectsreinforce each other, as promoting development in countries of origin is seen by both host governmentsand diaspora communities as a way to achieve their long-term goals.