Immigration and US native workers’ wages: differential responses by education

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess how wages of US native workers with various educational backgrounds are affected by immigration.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper estimates the responses of these workers’ wages to the concentration of immigrants with various educational backgrounds in their local labour markets, using 1980‐2000 US Census data and instrumental variables approach.

Findings

Wages of native high school dropouts fall slightly in the presence of immigrant high school dropouts and high school graduates; wages of native high school graduates fall slightly in the presence of immigrant high school graduates, but rise in the presence of immigrants with higher levels of education; wages of native workers with some college education fall slightly with larger concentrations of immigrant high school graduates but rise slightly with larger concentrations of immigrant college graduates; and there is no evidence that wages of native college graduates are affected by immigration.

Originality/value

No previous studies have considered these possibilities when assessing the impact of immigration on native workers’ wages.

Citation

SrungBoonmee, T. (2013), "Immigration and US native workers’ wages: differential responses by education", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 447-464. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-05-2013-0118