Borjas, George J. 2006. “Native Internal Migration and the Labor Market Impact of Immigration.” Journal of Human Resources 41(2): 221–258.
This paper presents a theoretical and empirical study of how immigration influences the joint determination of the wage structure and internal migration behavior for native-born workers in local labor markets. Using data from the 1960–2000 decennial censuses, the study shows that immigration is associated with lower in-migration rates, higher out-migration rates, and a decline in the growth rate of the native workforce. The native migration response attenuates the measured impact of immigration on wages in a local labor market by 40 to 60 percent, depending on whether the labor market is defined at the state or metropolitan area level.
George J. Borjas is the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The author thanks two anonymous referees, Alberto Abadie, Richard Freeman, Edward Glaeser, Daniel Hamermesh, Lawrence Katz, Robert Rowthorn, and Stephen Trejo for very helpful comments on an earlier draft, and the Smith-Richardson Foundation for research support. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning October 2006 through September 2009 from the author (gborjas@harvard.edu).