International Migration Review
Migrants, Knowledge Connections, and Digital Trade in the Information Age
2025-10-30
Digitalization has dramatically expanded the scale and scope of cross-border trade for international businesses, whether large multinational enterprises (MNEs), medium- to small-sized MNEs, or importing/exporting firms. In this paper, we examine how and to what extent migrants facilitate cross-border digital trade between their country of origin and country of residence. We argue that the rise in digital trade between countries is observed, in part, due to the rise of international knowledge connections facilitated by cross-border migrant relationships. Empirical analysis of migration and services trade panel data for the high- and upper-middle-income trading partners of the United States from 2000 to 2020 shows that recent migrants (or non-immigrants) to the United States increased exports to their country of origin. More importantly, we find that permanent migrants (or immigrants) embedded in their country of residence significantly increased exports to their country of origin. Implications for an interdisciplinary dialogue between economic theories of knowledge and institutional change on the one hand and economic sociology and migrant transnationalism on the other are discussed.