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Immigrants and the Labor Market

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  • James P. Smith

Abstract

The once-again rapidly expanding numbers of immigrants in the American labor market has not escaped the attention of labor economists. In this paper, the author deals with two issues concerning immigrants on which labor economists have made significant contributions over the last few decades. The first question concerns what has happened to the skill gap between immigrants and Native-born Americans (see Borjas (1995) and Jasso, Rosenzweig, and Smith (2000)). This ‘what happened’ question is followed by ‘why did it happen’ and he offers his answers as to why. The second question concerns what has happened to the education dimension of the skill gap for descendants of immigrants- assimilation across generations. An important form in which this question has been asked is how the recent waves of ethnic immigrants compare with the reality of the generational success of European immigrant experience, a success that has shaped much of mythology surrounding the American immigrant experience.

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  • James P. Smith, 2005. "Immigrants and the Labor Market," Working Papers WR-321, RAND Corporation.
    • Handle: RePEc:ran:wpaper:wr-321
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kevin M. Murphy & Finis Welch, 1992. "The Structure of Wages," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 107(1), pages 285-326.
    2. Lawrence F. Katz & Kevin M. Murphy, 1992. "Changes in Relative Wages, 1963–1987: Supply and Demand Factors," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 107(1), pages 35-78.
    3. Kristin F. Butcher & John Dinardo, 2002. "The Immigrant and Native-Born Wage Distributions: Evidence from United States Censuses," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(1), pages 97-121, October.
    4. Guillermina Jasso & Douglas Massey & Mark Rosenzweig & James Smith, 2000. "The new immigrant survey pilot (NIS-P): Overview and new findings about U.S. Legal immigrants at admission," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(1), pages 127-138, February.
    5. James P. Smith, 2003. "Assimilation across the Latino Generations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 315-319, May.
    6. Robert J. LaLonde & Robert H. Topel, 1992. "The Assimilation of Immigrants in the U. S. Labor Market," NBER Chapters, in: Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas, pages 67-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. George J. Borjas, 1994. "Long-Run Convergence of Ethnic Skill Differentials: The Children and Grandchildren of the Great Migration," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 47(4), pages 553-573, July.
    8. Kristin F. Butcher & Anne Morrison Piehl, 1998. "Recent Immigrants: Unexpected Implications for Crime and Incarceration," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(4), pages 654-679, July.
    9. Richard Alba & Amy Lutz & Elena Vesselinov, 2001. "How enduring were the inequalities among European immigrant groups in the United States?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(3), pages 349-356, August.
    10. Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2007. "Ethnic Identification, Intermarriage, and Unmeasured Progress by Mexican Americans," NBER Chapters, in: Mexican Immigration to the United States, pages 229-268, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Trejo, Stephen J, 1997. "Why Do Mexican Americans Earn Low Wages?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1235-1268, December.
    12. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M & Pierce, Brooks, 1993. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 410-442, June.
    13. George J. Borjas, 1994. "Long-Run Convergence of Ethnic Skill Differentials," NBER Working Papers 4641, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Guillermina Jasso & Mark R. Rosenzweig & James P. Smith, 2000. "The Changing Skill of New Immigrants to the United States: Recent Trends and Their Determinants," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in the Economics of Immigration, pages 185-226, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2017. "The Complexity of Immigrant Generations: Implications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Integration of Hispanics and Asians," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(5), pages 1146-1175, October.
    2. Christian Dustmann & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, 2010. "Ethnic minority immigrants and their children in Britain," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(2), pages 209-233, April.
    3. George J. Borjas & Rachel M. Friedberg, 2009. "Recent Trends in the Earnings of New Immigrants to the United States," Working Papers 2009-13, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    4. Duncan, Brian & Grogger, Jeffrey & Leon, Ana Sofia & Trejo, Stephen J., 2020. "New evidence of generational progress for Mexican Americans," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Boustan, 2017. "Immigration in American Economic History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1311-1345, December.
    6. Pope, Nolan G., 2016. "The Effects of DACAmentation: The Impact of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on Unauthorized Immigrants," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 98-114.
    7. Pylypchuk, Yuriy, 2009. "Effects of immigration on the health insurance status of natives," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 1028-1037, September.
    8. Timothy Hatton & Andrew Leigh, 2011. "Immigrants assimilate as communities, not just as individuals," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 389-419, April.
    9. Asadul Islam & Faridul Islam & Chau Nguyen, 2017. "Skilled Immigration, Innovation, and the Wages of Native-Born Americans," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 459-488, July.
    10. Sarah Bohn, 2010. "The quantity and quality of new immigrants to the US," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 29-51, March.
    11. Carolyn Moehling & Anne Piehl, 2014. "Immigrant assimilation into US prisons, 1900–1930," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(1), pages 173-200, January.
    12. David Escamilla-Guerrero & Edward Kosack & Zachary Ward, 2020. "Life after Crossing the Border: Assimilation during the First Mexican Mass Migration," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _183, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    13. Nong Zhu & Cecile Batisse, 2014. "Croissance, inégalités et pauvreté : le cas des immigrants au Canada," CIRANO Working Papers 2014s-11, CIRANO.
    14. Han, Jun & Li, Shi, 2017. "Internal migration and external benefit: The impact of labor migration on the wage structure in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 67-86.
    15. Green, David A. & Worswick, Christopher, 2012. "Immigrant earnings profiles in the presence of human capital investment: Measuring cohort and macro effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 241-259.
    16. Ostrovsky, Yuri, 2008. "Inegalite et instabilite des gains chez les immigrants au Canada," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2008309f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    17. Lundborg, Per & Skedinger, Per, 2014. "Employer Attitudes towards Refugee Immigrants," Working Paper Series 1025, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    18. Jens Ruhose, 2013. "Bildungsleistungen von Migranten und deren Determinanten – Teil II: Primar-, Sekundar- und Tertiärbereich," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 66(10), pages 24-38, May.
    19. Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2018. "Socioeconomic Integration of U.S. Immigrant Groups over the Long Term: The Second Generation and Beyond," NBER Working Papers 24394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Aimee Chin & Chinhui Juhn, 2010. "Does Reducing College Costs Improve Educational Outcomes for Undocumented Immigrants? Evidence from State Laws Permitting Undocumented Immigrants to Pay In-state Tuition at State Colleges and Universi," NBER Working Papers 15932, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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