This paper reassesses the evidence on the assimilation and the changing labor market skills of immigrants to the United States. We find strong evidence of labor market assimilation for most immigrant groups. For Asian and Mexican immigrants the first ten years experience in the united States raise earnings by more than 20 percent. Further, this estimate may understate the actual rate of assimilation because of the sharp decline in the relative wages of unskilled U.S. workers. We also find little evidence of declining immigrant "quality" within ethnic groups. The diminished labor market skills of new immigrants result entirely from changes in the immigrants' countries of origin.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
3573.
Length: Date of creation: Dec 1990 Date of revision: Publication status: published as LaLonde, Robert J. and Robert H. Topel. "Immigrants In The American Labor Market: Quality, Assimilation, And Distributional Effects," American Economic Review, 1991, v81(2), 297-302. "The Assimilation of Immigrants in the United States: Immigrant Quality and the Changing Price of Skills," George J. Borjas and Richard B. Freeman, editors, Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas, Chicago: UCP, September 1992. Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:3573
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