Native Internal Migration and the Labor Market Impact of Immigration

George J. Borjas

NBER Working Paper No. 11610
Issued in September 2005
NBER Program(s):   LS

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.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w11610

Published: Borjas, George J. "Native Internal Migration and The Labor Market Impact Of Immigration," Journal of Human Resources 41(2): 221-258, Spring 2006 citation courtesy of

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