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Article
Publication date: 9 August 2013

Tanyamat SrungBoonmee

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

1186

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.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 January 2021

Evans Korang Adjei, Lars-Fredrik Andersson, Rikard H. Eriksson and Sandro Scocco

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of immigration on the labour market outcomes of low-educated natives (i.e. residents without a university diploma). Using the…

4943

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of immigration on the labour market outcomes of low-educated natives (i.e. residents without a university diploma). Using the labour market competition theory, which argues that the labour market effects of natives depend on the skill set of immigrants, the paper addresses whether immigrants are complementary to or substitutes for native workers.

Design/methodology/approach

Longitudinal matched employer–employee data on Sweden are used to estimate how low-educated natives, in regions experiencing the greatest influx of refugees from the Balkan wars, responded to this supply shock with regard to real wages, employment and job mobility between 1990 and 2003.

Findings

First, the analysis shows that low-educated native workers respond to the arrival of immigrants with an increase in real wages. Second, although employment prospects in general worsened for low-skilled workers in most regions, this is not attributable to the regions experiencing the largest supply shock. Third, there are indications that low-skilled natives in immigration-rich regions are more likely to change workplace, particularly in combination with moving upwards in the wage distribution.

Originality/value

Rather than seeing an emergence of the commonly perceived displacement mechanism when an economy is subject to a supply shock, the regional findings suggest that high inflows of immigrants tend to induce a mechanism that pulls native workers upwards in the wage distribution. This is important, as the proportion of immigrants is seldom evenly distributed within a nation.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 48 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Lixin Cai and Amy Y.C. Liu

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the wage differentials along the entire distribution between immigrants and the Australian-born.

1173

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the wage differentials along the entire distribution between immigrants and the Australian-born.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, the authors apply a semi-parametric method (DiNardo et al., 1996) to decompose the distributional wage gap between immigrants and native-born Australians into composition effect and wage structure effect. The authors further apply the unconditional quantile regression (UQR) method (Firpo et al., 2007) to decompose the overall wage structure effect into contributions from individual wage covariates.

Findings

Relative to the native-born, both effects favour immigrants from English-speaking countries. For male immigrants from non-English-speaking countries (NESC) the favourable composition effect is offset by disadvantage in the wage structure effect, leaving little overall wage difference. Female immigrants from NESC are disadvantaged at the lower part of the wage distribution.

Practical implications

The increasingly skill-based immigration policy in Australia has increased skill levels of immigrants relative to the Australian-born. However, the playing field may yet to be equal for the recent NESC immigrants due to unfavourable rewards to their productivity factors. Also, immigrants are not homogeneous. Countries of origin and gender matter in affecting wage outcomes.

Originality/value

The unique wage-setting system and the increasingly skill-based immigration policy have made Australia an interesting case. The authors examine the entire wage distribution between migrants and native-born rather than focus on the mean. The authors differentiate immigrants by their country of origin and gender; and apply the UQR decomposition to identify the contributions from individual wage covariates.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 36 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 28 March 2006

Örn B. Bodvarsson and Hendrik Van den Berg

Numerous studies have concluded that immigration has very small effects on wages or unemployment, even when the immigration flow is very large. Three reasons suggested for this…

Abstract

Numerous studies have concluded that immigration has very small effects on wages or unemployment, even when the immigration flow is very large. Three reasons suggested for this are that immigration: (1) is not supply-push, but may instead be driven by demand-pull factors; (2) is likely to cause some out-migration; and (3) may induce flows of other factors across the economy. Surprisingly, few studies consider another obvious explanation: immigrant workers also consume locally, which means immigration stimulates the local demand for labor. Previous researchers have generally ignored the measurement of immigration's effects on labor demand, perhaps because when immigration, out-migration, and immigrant consumption occur simultaneously in the same labor market, it is very difficult to isolate immigration's effect on labor demand. This paper measures the labor demand-augmenting effects of immigration using a two-sector model of a very special case in which the receiving economy consists of: (a) an export industry employing both immigrants and natives; and (b) a retail industry employing native labor that is driven by local demand. The model can incorporate both supply-push and demand-pull immigration as well as out-migration. The model's important implication is that since immigration is exogenous to the retail sector, an unbiased estimate of the demand effect of immigration can be obtained without having to use instrumental variables estimation or other statistical procedures that may introduce new sources of bias. Fortunately, the economy in our model matches a very convenient test case: Dawson County, Nebraska. Dawson County recently experienced a surge in demand-pull immigration due to the location of a large export-driven meatpacking plant. This exogenous capital shock pulled in many Hispanic immigrant workers, who did not immediately seek work in the retail sector because of social and language barriers. This immigration led to higher retail wages and housing prices, confirming that immigration is capable of exerting significant effects on local labor demand.

Details

The Economics of Immigration and Social Diversity
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-390-7

Article
Publication date: 23 March 2012

Catia Nicodemo and Raul Ramos

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the wage gap between native and immigrant women in Spain, taking into account differences in their characteristics and the need to control…

1162

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the wage gap between native and immigrant women in Spain, taking into account differences in their characteristics and the need to control for common support. If immigrant women are segregated in occupations with few native women, it is important to take this into account to analyse wage differentials between both collectives.

Design/methodology/approach

Microdata from the Continuous Sample of Working Histories (Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales) on wages and other personal characteristics such as gender, country of origin, and age were used to apply the matching procedure and the decomposition of the wage gap, along the lines of Ñopo, for the analysis of wage differentials between native and immigrant women. The advantage of this procedure is that one can simultaneously estimate the common support and the mean counterfactual wage for the women on the common support (i.e. comparing native and immigrant women with similar observable characteristics). In addition, differences not only at the mean but also along the entire wage distribution can be described.

Findings

The results obtained indicate that, on average, immigrant women earn less than native women in the Spanish labour market. This wage gap is bigger when immigrant women from developing countries are considered, but the authors’ main finding is that an important part of this wage gap is related to differences in common support (i.e. immigrant women are segregated in certain jobs with low wages different from those occupied by native women). If the need to control for common support is neglected, estimates of the wage gap will be biased.

Originality/value

Studying the case of Spain is particularly interesting because it is a country with abundant and recent immigration. Immigrant women account for more than half of the total immigrants in Spain, and unlike other host countries, they come from a highly varied range of countries, with origins as diverse as Latin America, the Maghreb and Eastern Europe. To the authors’ knowledge, no other study has explicitly focused on the analysis of the wage differential of immigrant women in the Spanish labour market by taking into account the need to control for common support. Moreover, published papers illustrating the potentiality of Ñopo's methodology are also very scarce.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 33 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 April 2021

Anna Rosso

The paper aims at examining wage developments among Eastern European immigrants vs UK natives before and after the 2004 enlargement by measuring the extent to which inter-group…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims at examining wage developments among Eastern European immigrants vs UK natives before and after the 2004 enlargement by measuring the extent to which inter-group wage differentials are explainable by these groups' changing attributes or by differences in returns to these characteristics. The enlargement has been a defining moment in British recent history and may have contributed to the unfolding of the events that have culminated in Brexit.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a quantitative analysis of the immigrant–native wage gap across the entire distribution by applying the methodology known as the unconditional quantile regression. The analysis is performed before and after the 2004 European Union enlargement to Eastern countries. The data used is the British Labour Force Survey (UK LFS) from 1998 to 2008.

Findings

At all distribution points, a major role is played by occupational downgrading, which increases over time. The results further suggest that the decreased wage levels at the top of the distribution stem mainly from low transferability of skills acquired in the source country.

Research limitations/implications

The UK LFS does not allow to follow individuals for a long period of time. For this reason, the main limitation of the study is the impossibility to measure for individual-level trajectories in their labour market integration and to account for return migration.

Originality/value

The analysis provides a detailed picture of the wage differences between Eastern European immigrants and natives along the whole wage distribution. The paper also identifies possible causes of the wage gap decrease for EU8 immigrant workers after 2008.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 42 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 January 2013

Hugo Toledo

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the difficulties of implementing emiratization, a policy that aims at increasing the participation of native workers in the UAE private…

3276

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the difficulties of implementing emiratization, a policy that aims at increasing the participation of native workers in the UAE private sector by means of a government mandate. A second objective of the paper is to explore the conditions under which the emiratization policy can potentially increase the participation of native workers in the UAE private sector.

Design/methodology/approach

An extension of the Ramsey Rule is used as a relevant application for this study to show that within the context of a break‐even constraint, any deviation between the wage rate and the marginal factor cost that is not proportional to the deviation between the marginal revenue product and the marginal factor cost could affect the firm labor demand and profitability.

Findings

The theoretical models support the recommendations that the emiratization policy will tend to achieve some level of success in the short‐run, if implemented in firms that are operating in imperfectly competitive markets. In the medium‐run, a higher level of labor mobility for migrant workers could potentially increase employment opportunities for native workers.

Originality/value

The literature on labor protection in the GCC is almost non‐existent. This paper explores conditions under which given an externally imposed constraint on native employment, the participation of native workers in the UAE private sector could increase.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 October 2009

Tobias Müller and José Ramirez

Purpose – We analyze segregation between immigrants and natives at the firm level and explore the connection between segregation and wage inequality in…

Abstract

Purpose – We analyze segregation between immigrants and natives at the firm level and explore the connection between segregation and wage inequality in Switzerland.

Methodology/Approach – Our approach accounts for the interaction between skill level and immigration status (work permit). First, we calculate exposure rates in order to analyze segregation at the firm level along these two dimensions. Second, we examine the role of segregation in the explanation of wage inequality between different skill–nationality groups. We use data from the Swiss Wage Structure Survey 2002, an employer–employee database that records individual wages among a very large sample of establishments in all industries, covering approximately 42,000 firms and 1 million workers.

Findings – Our results show that interfirm segregation is particularly pronounced for unskilled foreign workers and for recently arrived, highly skilled foreigners. The former earn lower wages than equally skilled Swiss workers, and the latter are paid higher wages than highly skilled Swiss workers. In both cases, interfirm segregation accounts for almost the entire wage differential.

Originality/Value of paper – This paper presents a generalization of the approach used by Groshen (1991) to the multigroup case by defining segregation with respect to the two dimensions of nationality and skill. The use of multigroup exposure rates is common in studies of neighborhood segregation (e.g., Bayer et al., 2004), but our paper shows that they can also be fruitfully applied in the analysis of interfirm segregation and wage inequality.

Details

Occupational and Residential Segregation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-786-4

Article
Publication date: 6 May 2014

Ayla Ogus Binatli and Sacit Hadi Akdede

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the social status of migrants in a culturally liberal and historically cosmopolitan port city in Turkey.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the social status of migrants in a culturally liberal and historically cosmopolitan port city in Turkey.

Design/methodology/approach

A novel data set from the Izmir Labor Market Household Survey is used. Social status is measured by occupational status, wages, and education. In addition, parents’ education, as well as, duration of unemployment for migrants is analyzed. Occupational status and education analyzes are based on ordered probit models. The probability that an individual with given characteristics will have an uneducated parent is estimated with a probit model. Weibull duration model is employed for the unemployment duration.

Findings

Migrants in Izmir are likely to have occupations that claim a lower status. Migrants have higher wages so migrants are taking jobs of lower status but higher pay. The probability of exiting unemployment for migrants is higher, that is the duration of unemployment for migrants is shorter. Male have higher education levels and receive higher wages. Parents’ education for migrants is lower in general. Female migrants have lower education levels than natives, male or female, and do not receive higher wages than female natives in the labor market. The paper concludes that the social status of migrant women is definitely lower than natives, male or female, and male migrants. Evidence on the social status of migrant men also points to a disadvantage as even though the male migrant is more educated on average, he is likely to hold an occupation of lower status.

Originality/value

This paper employs a novel data set to investigate the social status of migrants vs natives. In addition, it undertakes a multi-dimensional econometric analyses of social status. Unemployment has not been included in econometric analysis of social status before.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 35 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 July 2019

Raquel Sebastian and Magdalena Ulceluse

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of an increase in the relative supply of immigrants on natives’ task reallocation, with a focus on Germany. Specifically, it…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of an increase in the relative supply of immigrants on natives’ task reallocation, with a focus on Germany. Specifically, it investigates whether natives, as a response to increased immigration, re-specialise in communication-intensive occupations, where they arguably have a comparative advantage due to language proficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis uses regional data from the German Labour Force Survey between 2002 and 2014. To derive data on job tasks requirements, it employs the US Department of Labor’s O*NET database, the results of which are tested through a sensitivity analysis using the European Working Condition Survey and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies data sets.

Findings

The paper finds that indeed German workers respond to increasing immigration by shifting their task supply and providing more communication relative to manual tasks. Importantly, the decrease in the supply of communication tasks is stronger and more robust than the increase in the supply of manual tasks, pointing to a potential displacement effect taking place between natives and immigrants, alongside task reallocation. This would suggest that countries with relatively more rigid labour markets are less responsive to immigration shocks. Moreover, it suggests that labour market rigidity can minimise the gains from immigration and exacerbate employment effects.

Originality/value

The paper not only investigates task reallocation as a result of immigration in a different institutional context and labour market functioning, but the results feed into broader policy and scholarly discussions on the effects of immigration, including questions about how the institutional context affects labour market adjustment to immigration, worker occupational mobility in a more rigid labour markets and the fine balance needed between flexibility and rigidity.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 40 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

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