Information Frictions and Migration Journeys

Migration across developing countries has become a prominent topic in the last couple of years. For instance, most of the world's refugees live in middle-income countries, such as Turkey or Colombia (UNHCR, 2021). Therefore, the study of migration in developing countries is key to improving regional stability and migrants’ wellbeing. We want to study the journey of migrants through Mexico, a migration route facing historically high numbers (Castañeda, 2021). Migrants on this route are vulnerable as they travel in Mexico, with news reports documenting murder and extortion from criminals and abuses by authorities.  

Our project idea is to explore the role social networks can have in preventing crimes against migrants and improving their economic outcomes. The intervention we have in mind is to connect newly arrived migrants in the north with more established ones as they wait for US entry or connect migrants beginning their journey with ones who completed the journey in the north. The pathway to an RCT is straightforward since we can randomly allocate which migrants receive better connections.