Could a silver lining of the damage caused by Hurricane Maria be that migration from Puerto Rico to more productive places in the continental U.S accelerates? While the popular media is discussing the challenge caused by "climate refugees", I have argued in the past that migrants are self interested and will look to market signals of real wages to identify which areas will value attracting them. Here is a piece I wrote about "climate refugees" in May 2016. Here is another one I wrote in 2014. As migrants move to more productive places, their families will benefit and they will enrich the areas they move to by increasing the demand for local housing and by giving local employers more workers to choose among. Yes, incumbents will face more competition for rents and wages but these general equilibrium effects are unlikely to be large.
For those who prefer to read peer reviewed economics articles (rather than blog posts), I recommend Harold Uhlig's 2011 piece about East Germany. He writes "In this paper, I have documented the ongoing exodus from rural East Germany, especially among the young population.
I have documented that wages there remain low and unemployment high, despite levels of education and training that are
on par with Western Germany. To understand these facts, one must seek a model which allows agents to improve their
situation by migration while at the same time keeping unemployment higher in the sending region."
In the case of Puerto Rico, social networks have anchored many people to remain in this area but these individuals are likely to have a brighter economic future if they migrate to the continental U.S. While this transition will impose costs, it will improve their children's education and opportunities. Many parts of the continental U.S feature low home prices and need young people to move there. There would appear to be gains to trade in the local labor markets. So, I do not foresee a "refugee crisis"? Instead, I see a silver lining from a very painful shock.