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The Economic Effects of International Labor Mobility

By
Edited by

Originally published in The Economics of Immigration Market-Based Approaches, Social Science, and Public Policy

This chapter, which surveys the state of knowledge about the economic effects of international labor mobility, is therefore especially concerned with considering labor mobility’s economic effects for potentially vulnerable subpopulations.

This chapter illustrates that there are massive gains available to the world economy if migration barriers are reduced or eliminated. It shows that immigrants have little impact on the job opportunities for the native-born population. It reviews the debate surrounding the impact of immigrants on the wages of the native-born population and finds that the impact is small and temporary, and that it is concentrated on those without a high school diploma. It also reviews the impact of emigration on countries whose population moves and finds generally neutral to positive impacts.