That's a very interesting question, and the answer isn't straight-forward. On the one hand, obviously we should expect some selection effects. On the other hand

That's a very interesting question, and the answer isn't straight-forward. On the one hand, obviously we should expect some selection effects. On the other hand, there is a relative status effect counter-acting it. Long story short, people prefer to be relatively rich in a poor country than relatively poor in a rich country, even if their absolute level of wealth would increase. Stark & Taylor (1991)[0] for example found that, at least when it comes to Mexico, the relative preference trumps the absolute preference: poorer households were more likely to migrate. [0] http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2234433?sid=21105522338573&uid=2&uid=3738128&uid=4 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2234433?sid=2110552233...