ATTRACTING SKILLED AND ANSKILLED IMMIGRANTS
The immigration market approach can tell us much about the skill composition of the immigrant pool. The self-selected sample of immigrants may be dominated by relatively unskilled persons or it may be composed of persons who are highly skilled. The type of skill-sorting that occurs as people move to whichever country makes them the best offer is far from obvious. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important questions that must be addressed by policy makers; after all, the economic benefits of immigration clearly depend on it. The immigration of unskilled workers may allow U.S. manufacturers and fanners to fill menial jobs that require few skills with relatively low wage labor. By contrast, the immigration of skilled workers helps provide staff for universities, hospitals, and scientific laboratories. In addition, the immigration of the unskilled will have a different impact on native labor market conditions, on tax revenues, and on the costs of social programs than the immigration of the skilled.
While more careful study is required, it is useful to examine how income inequality in the country of origin affects the type of immigrant attracted by the United States. Consider two alternative source countries, one with a relatively egalitarian income distribution, such as Sweden, and one with a substantial amount of income inequality. Mexico.
Should highly skilled Swedes migrate to the United States? Because of its egalitarian income distribution, highly skilled Swedes do not earn much more than those less skilled. Therefore, highly skilled Swedes find that their earnings opportunities would increase substantially if they migrated to the United States. By the same token, unskilled Swedes find that their economy protects them from the poor labor market outcomes that would likely befall them if they were to migrate to the United States. The self-selection of the immigrant pool originating in Sweden, while small, tends to encourage the migration of skilled persons.
Should a highly skilled Mexican migrate to the United States? Mexico has substantially more income inequality than the United States. Skilled Mexicans find that the Mexican income structure greatly rewards those skills, while unskilled Mexicans have little protection from poor labor market outcomes. As long as they can afford to migrate, unskilled Mexicans have the most incentive to come to the United States, and skilled Mexicans the least; so Mexicans migrating to the United States are likely to be unskilled.
In the end, persons are matched with countries that reward specific skills they have to offer: this is the central implication of the immigration-market approach. As long as individuals migrate to take advantage of different economic opportunities among countries, there is no reason to presume that the United States will always attract the “best and the brightest” or to presume that the United States will be continually flooded with the least-skilled persons of the source countries.
The skill composition of the immigrants in the foreign born population in the United States thus depends on how our offer of economic opportunity compares to the offers made by other host countries and by the migrants’ home country. Immigrants originating in some source countries are likely to be substantially more skilled than immigrants originating in other countries. Changes in U.S. immigration policy as well as changes in economic conditions in the United States and in competing host and source countries will alter the composition of the immigrant flow. The competitiveness of the United States‘ offer in the immigration market, therefore, will largely determine the economic impact of immigration on the United States.
according to the article « Immigration and the economy » by By George J. Borjas (the journal «THE SENIOR ECONOMIST» )
