That's an interesting comparison of the cultural situations of migrant workers in the US and elsewhere. I used to live in Texas and also saw that legal/illegal migrants were in general hard-working, paid relatively fairly, and sent their wages back home to invest.

I'm curious about your use of the phrase, joint "rent-seeking" ventures. I looked up the definition of rent-seeking on Wikipedia: "seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth", which tend to "result in reduced economic efficiency". Was that implied in your use of the phrase? If so, what kind of ventures did you have in mind? I imagine that migrant workers send their money home to invest, typically by starting businesses (or buying land..?) with family and friends - which isn't necessarily "rent-seeking"?