Merchants of Labor: Recruiters and International Labor Migration

Some 10 million migrant workers cross national borders each year and, if they pay an average $1,000 to recruiters, moving workers over borders is a $10 billion a year business. Merchants of Labor examines the businesses that move low-skilled workers over national borders, asking how much they collect from migrant workers and what can be done to reduce worker-paid migration costs.

For-profit recruiters are likely to be an enduring feature of international labor migration, which makes developi...