The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market

David Card

NBER Working Paper No. 3069*
Issued in August 1989
NBER Program(s):   LS

---- Abstract -----

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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