Are Migrants More Skilled than Non-Migrants? Repeat, Return and Same-Employer Migrants

33 Pages Posted: 4 Aug 2004 Last revised: 23 Jul 2022

See all articles by Jennifer Hunt

Jennifer Hunt

McGill University - Department of Economics; Rutgers University; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: July 2004

Abstract

I examine the determinants of inter-state migration of adults within western Germany, using the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1984-2000. I highlight the prevalence and distinctive characteristics of migrants who do not change employers. Same-employer migrants represent one fifth of all migrants higher education and pre-move wages than non-migrants. Conditional on age, same-employer migrants are therefore more skilled than non-migrants. By contrast, although other migrants have higher education than non-migrants, they do not have higher pre-move wages. Furthermore, they have in their ranks disproportionate numbers of the non-employed, unemployed and recently laid off. It therefore seems inappropriate to characterize them as more skilled than non-migrants. The results for same-employer migrants indicate that skilled workers have a low-cost migration avenue that has not been considered in the previous literature. I also analyze the relation between repeat and return migration and distinguish between short and long-distance migration. I confirm that long-distance migrants are more skilled than short-distance migrants, as predicted by theory, and I show that return migrants are a mix of successes and failures.

Suggested Citation

Hunt, Jennifer and Hunt, Jennifer, Are Migrants More Skilled than Non-Migrants? Repeat, Return and Same-Employer Migrants (July 2004). NBER Working Paper No. w10633, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=565844

Jennifer Hunt (Contact Author)

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