This paper presents an empirical analysis of the effect of the
Mariel Boatlift on the Miami labor market, focusing on the wages
and unemployment rates of less-skilled workers. The Mariel
immigrants increased the population and labor force of the Miami
metropolitan area by 7 percent. Most of the immigrants were
relatively unskilled: as a result, the proportional increase in
labor supply to less-skilled occupations and industries was much
greater. Nevertheless, an analysis of wages of non-Cuban workers
over the 1979-85 period reveals virtually no effect of the Mariel
influx. Likewise, there is no indication that the Boatlift lead to
an increase in the unemployment rates of less-skilled blacks or
other non-Cuban workers. Even among the Cuban population wages and
unemployment rates of earlier immigrants were not substantially
effected by the arrival of the Mariels.
*Published:
Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 245-257, (January 1990).
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