TY  - JOUR
AU  - Borjas,George J.
AU  - Friedberg,Rachel M.
TI  - Recent Trends in the Earnings of New Immigrants to the United States
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15406
PY  - 2009
Y2  - October 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15406
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15406.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
George J. Borjas
Harvard Kennedy School
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-1393
Fax: 617/495-9532
E-Mail: gborjas@harvard.edu

Rachel M. Friedberg
Department of Economics
Brown University
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI  02912
Tel: 401/863-7578
Fax: 401/863-1970
E-Mail: rachel_friedberg@brown.edu
AB  - This paper studies long-term trends in the labor market performance of immigrants in the United States, using the 1960-2000 PUMS and 1994-2009 CPS. While there was a continuous decline in the earnings of new immigrants 1960-1990, the trend reversed in the 1990s, with newcomers doing as well in 2000, relative to natives, as they had 20 years earlier. This improvement in immigrant performance is not explained by changes in origin-country composition, educational attainment or state of residence. Changes in labor market conditions, including changes in the wage structure which could differentially impact recent arrivals, can account for only a small portion of it. The upturn appears to have been caused in part by a shift in immigration policy toward high-skill workers matched with jobs, an increase in the earnings of immigrants from Mexico, and a decline in the earnings of native high school dropouts. However, most of the increase remains a puzzle. Results from the CPS suggest that, while average entry wages fell again after 2000, correcting for simple changes in the composition of new immigrants, the unexplained rise in entry wages has persisted.
ER  -