Among the benefits to migrants from immigration are the following concrete benefits:
- Substantial increase in pay, even assuming that there is no skill upgrade. This is measured through what economists have labeled the place premium. The place premium exists both for skilled and unskilled labor, but its effect is fairly dramatic for unskilled workers who can move out of absolute poverty into “first-world poverty” within a few weeks of moving.
- With increases in pay come improvements with respect to all the things that money can buy. The positive correlation between income and happiness, combined with the huge increases in income, mean that migration does make people happier, and more satisfied in other ways.
- Access to legal, financial, and educational systems that can help with skill development and long-term wealth creation that are unavailable in some countries. See immigration and charter cities for more along these lines.
- For many migrants, escape from persecution and inhospitable political climates. For instance, see emigration: escaping communism and emigration as disaster relief.