IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v64y2005i2p609-636.html

What If Immigrants Had Not Migrated?

Author

Listed:
  • Seong Woo Lee
  • Dowell Myers
  • Seong‐Kyu Ha
  • Hae Ran Shin

Abstract

. Despite strong theoretical arguments and models about international migration, very few empirical studies rigorously test these arguments and models. The purpose of the present study is to analyze determinants and consequences for international migration, focusing particularly on the returns to post‐hoc international migration. The present study compares residential well‐being of Korean international migrants in the United States with that of their hypothetical well‐being if they had not migrated. Our suggested models of the selectivity corrected returns to various characteristics for immigrants and nonimmigrants enable us to estimate the “opportunity well‐being” of individuals and households; that is, the well‐being of immigrants‐had‐they‐stayed and of nonimmigrants‐if‐they‐had‐immigrated. The data for our analyses are drawn from the 1990 Korea Census Data and the Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) of the 1990 U.S. Census. In either case of migrants‐had‐they‐stayed or of nonimmigrants‐had‐they‐migrated, international migration to the United States has a significant and positive effect on the probability of homeownership, especially for women. The results show that the predicted probability of homeownership attainment increases as a result of migration by 15 percent to 16 percent for women and by 8 percent for men. The study concludes that migrating to the United States offers better opportunities for homeownership than staying in Korea does, particularly for women.

Suggested Citation

  • Seong Woo Lee & Dowell Myers & Seong‐Kyu Ha & Hae Ran Shin, 2005. "What If Immigrants Had Not Migrated?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 609-636, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:64:y:2005:i:2:p:609-636
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2005.00381.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2005.00381.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2005.00381.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dowell Myers & Seong Lee, 1996. "Immigration cohorts and residential overcrowding in southern California," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(1), pages 51-65, February.
    2. Edward Funkhouser, 1992. "Mass Emigration, Remittances, and Economic Adjustment: The Case of El Salvador in the 1980s," NBER Chapters, in: Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas, pages 135-176, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Borjas, George J. & Freeman, Richard B. (ed.), 1992. "Immigration and the Work Force," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226066332, August.
    4. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 2, pages 3-29, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Stark, Oded & Taylor, J Edward, 1991. "Migration Incentives, Migration Types: The Role of Relative Deprivation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(408), pages 1163-1178, September.
    6. Goodman, Allen C., 1988. "An econometric model of housing price, permanent income, tenure choice, and housing demand," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 327-353, May.
    7. Krieg, Randall G, 1993. "Black-White Regional Migration and the Impact of Education: A Multinomial Logit Analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 27(3), pages 211-222, September.
    8. Henderson, J. Vernon & Ioannides, Yannis M., 1987. "Owner occupancy: Investment vs consumption demand," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 228-241, March.
    9. Greenwood, Michael J, 1975. "Research on Internal Migration in the United States: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 397-433, June.
    10. SeongWoo Lee & Curtis C. Roseman, 1999. "Migration Determinants and Employment Consequences of White and Black Families, 1985–1990," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 75(2), pages 109-133, April.
    11. Greenwood, Michael J & McDowell, John M, 1991. "Differential Economic Opportunity, Transferability of Skills, and Immigration to the United States and Canada," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(4), pages 612-623, November.
    12. J. Edward Taylor, 1987. "Undocumented Mexico—U.S. Migration and the Returns to Households in Rural Mexico," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 69(3), pages 626-638.
    13. Thomas J. Cooke & Adrian J. Bailey, 1996. "Family Migration and the Employment of Married Women and Men," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(1), pages 38-48, January.
    14. Molho, Ian, 1986. "Theories of Migration: A Review," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 33(4), pages 396-419, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiyoung Park & Seongwoo Lee & Jonghoon Park, 2024. "The Economic Decision of International Migration: Two Empirical Evidences from the United States and Canada," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-21, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jiyoung Park & Seongwoo Lee & Jonghoon Park, 2024. "The Economic Decision of International Migration: Two Empirical Evidences from the United States and Canada," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-21, August.
    2. JiYoung Park & JongSoo Lee & SeongWoo Lee, 2026. "Non-Economic Motivation for International Migration: A Decennial Investigation of Korean Family Migration to the United States," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 202601, University of Kansas, Department of Economics.
    3. JiYoung Park & JongSoo Lee & SeongWoo Lee, 2026. "Non-economic motivation for international migration: a decennial investigation of Korean family migration to the U.S," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 75(1), pages 1-32, March.
    4. Cristina Cattaneo, 2016. "Opting in to Opt out? Emigration and Group Participation in Albania," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 1046-1075, December.
    5. Filiz Garip, 2014. "The Impact of Migration and Remittances on Wealth Accumulation and Distribution in Rural Thailand," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 673-698, April.
    6. Jeroen Smits, 2001. "Career Migration, Self-selection and the Earnings of Married Men and Women in the Netherlands, 1981-93," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 541-562, March.
    7. Borjas, George J., 2002. "Homeownership in the immigrant population," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 448-476, November.
    8. Rashid, Saman, 2004. "Internal migration and income of immigrant families," Umeå Economic Studies 624, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    9. Justo Manrique & Kalu Ojah, 2003. "The demand for housing in Spain: an endogenous switching regression analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 323-336.
    10. Rashid, Saman, 2004. "Immigrant Earnings, Assimilation and Heterogeneity," Umeå Economic Studies 622, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    11. Maoyong Fan & Susan Gabbard & Anita Alves Pena & Jeffrey M. Perloff, 2015. "Why Do Fewer Agricultural Workers Migrate Now?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(3), pages 665-679.
    12. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn & Matthew Comey & Amanda Eng & Pamela Meyerhofer & Alexander Willén, 2020. "Culture and gender allocation of tasks: source country characteristics and the division of non-market work among US immigrants," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 907-958, December.
    13. Michael Clemens, 2014. "Does Development Reduce Migration? - Working Paper 359," Working Papers 359, Center for Global Development.
    14. Francine Blau, 2015. "Immigrants and gender roles: assimilation vs. culture," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, December.
    15. Korel Lyudmila & Korel Igor, 2000. "Migrations and Macroeconomic Processes in Post-socialist Russia: Regional Aspect," EERC Working Paper Series 98-089e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    16. George J. Borjas, 1995. "The internationalization of the U.S. labor market and the wage structure," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Jan, pages 3-8.
    17. Christian Dustmann & Uta Schoenberg, 2025. "Linking Empirical Evidence to Theory: A Framework for Understanding Immigrations Labor Market Effects," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2522, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    18. Mathias Sinning, 2010. "Homeownership and Economic Performance of Immigrants in Germany," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(2), pages 387-409, February.
    19. Lee, Taehoon & Peri, Giovanni & Viarengo, Martina, 2022. "The gender aspect of migrants’ assimilation in Europe," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    20. Peter Huber & Klaus Nowotny & Julia Bock-Schappelwein, 2010. "Qualification Structure, Over- and Under-qualification of the Foreign Born in Austria and the EU," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 41226.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:64:y:2005:i:2:p:609-636. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.