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Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market

Are immigrants squeezing Americans out of the work force? Or is competition wth foreign products imported by the United States an even greater danger to those employed in some industries? How do wages and unions fare in foreign-owned firms? And are the media’s claims about the number of illegal immigrants misleading?

Prompted by the growing internationalization of the U.S. labor market since the 1970s, contributors to Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market provide an innovative and comprehensive analysis of the labor market impact of the international movements of people, goods, and capital. Their provocative findings are brought into perspective by studies of two other major immigrant-recipient countries, Canada and Australia. The differing experiences of each nation stress the degree to which labor market institutions and economic policies can condition the effect of immigration and trade on economic outcomes
Contributors trace the flow of immigrants by comparing the labor market and migration behavior of individual immigrants, explore the effects of immigration on wages and employment by comparing the composition of the work force in local labor markets, and analyze the impact of trade on labor markets in different industries. A unique data set was developed especially for this study—ranging from an effort to link exports/imports with wages and employment in manufacturing industries, to a survey of illegal Mexican immigrants in the San Diego area—which will prove enormously valuable for future research.

442 pages | 14 figures, 145 tables | 6 x 9 | © 1991

National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report

Economics and Business: Business--Industry and Labor, Economics--International and Comparative

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction and Summary
John M. Abowd and Richard B. Freeman
I. Immigration Flows and Performance in the United States
1. Immigration and Self-Selection
George J. Borjas
2. Undocumented Mexican-born Workers in the United States: How Many, How Permanent?
George J. Borjas, Richard B. Freeman, and Kevin Lang
3. The Effect of Policy Restrictions on Capital and Labor Flows in Mexico
Juan Diez-Canedo R.
4. Internal Migration of U.S. Immigrants
Ann P. Bartel and Marianne J. Koch
5. Migration, Ethnicity, and Labor Force Activity
Marth Tienda and Franklin D. Wilson
II. Impact of Immigration, Trade, and Capital Flows on the U.S. Labor Market
6. Labor Market Adjustments to Increased Immigration
Robert J. LaLonde and Robert H. Topel
7. The Effects of Immigration on the Labor Market Outcomes of Less-skilled Natives
Joseph G. Altonji and David Card
8. Industrial Wage and Employment Determination in an Open Economy
Richard B. Freeman and Lawrence F. Katz
9. Foreign-Owned Businesses in the United States
Jonathan S. Leonard and Rachel McCulloch
10. Immigration, International Trade, and the Wages of Native Workers
Peter Kuhn and Ian Wooton
11. Immigrants, Labor Market Pressures, and the Composition of the Aggregate Demand
Susan M. Collins
III. Comparative Experiences: Canada and Australia
12. An Analysis of the Earnings of Canadian Immigrants
David E. Bloom and Marley Gunderson
13. The Effects of International Competition on Collective Bargaining Outcomes: A Comparison of the United States and Canada
John M. Abowd and Thomas Lemieux
14. Male Immigrant Wage and Unemployment Experience in Australia
John J. Beggs and Bruce J. Chapman
15. Why are Low-skilled Immigrants in the United States Poorly Paid Relative to Their Australian Counterparts? Some of the Issues Illustrated in the Context of the Footwear, Clothing, and Textile Industries
R. G. Gregory, R. Anstie, and E. Klug
Appendix: The NBER Immigration, Trade, and Labor Markets Data Files
John M. Abowd
List of Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index

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