International Differences In The Labor Market Performance Of Immigrants

A study examined international differences in how immigrants perform in the labor market of their chosen country of residence. The empirical analysis used five census data sets from the three host countries to document the labor market performance of foreign-born persons in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Among the major empirical findings were the following: (1) prior to the mid-1960s, the United States and Canada attracted migrants who performed quite well in the labor market, whereas Australia attracted migrants who were not relatively successful in the Australian labor market; (2) these rankings were reversed during the 1970s, with migrants to Australia performing very well, whereas those choosing the United States had very low earnings; (3) changes in immigration policy initiated by the 1965 Amendments to the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act induced a structural decline in the quality of immigrant cohorts who chose the United States as their destination; (4) U.S. citizens who emigrated to Canada had very low earnings despite their relatively high education level. The study concluded that economic theory suggests that much more can be learned about the selection process if immigrants are compared to persons from the same country of origin who chose not to migrate and if immigrants in any given host country are compared to migrants who chose other host countries as their destination. (The document includes a 43-item bibliography, 23 tables, 5 figures, and an index.) (CML)