Significant income gains from migrating from poorer to richer countries have motivated
unilateral (source-country) policies facilitating labor emigration. However, their effectiveness is
unknown. We conducted a large-scale randomized experiment in the Philippines testing the
impact of unilaterally facilitating international labor migration. Our most intensive treatment
doubled the rate of job offers but had no identifiable effect on international labor migration. Even
the highest overseas job-search rate we induced (22%) falls far short of the share initially
expressing interest in migrating (34%). We conclude that unilateral migration facilitation will at
most induce a trickle, not a flood, of additional emigration.