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Although immigrants to the United States earn less at entry than their native-born counterparts, an extensive literature has found that immigrants have faster earnings growth that results in rapid convergence to native-born earnings. However, recent evidence based on U.S. Census data indicates a slowdown in the rate of earnings assimilation. We find that the pace of immigrant wage convergence based on recent data may be understated in the literature as a result of the method used by the census to impute missing information on earnings, which does not use immigration status as a match characteristic. Because both the share of immigrants in the workforce and earnings imputation rates have risen over time, imputation match bias for recent immigrants is more consequential than in earlier periods and may lead to an underestimate of the rate of immigrant wage convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study interviewed 350 African immigrants in North Carolina (NC) to shed light on their economic conditions. It focused primarily on their labor force participation and incomes for the period 2004-2014. The findings showed that both structural changes in NC's economy and prejudicial experiences within the labor force were the most important forces that undermined the economic ambitions of the Africans. The study also yielded a complex picture and raised some questions about the resettlement outcome of African immigrants in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women's representation among international migrants in many countries has risen over the last 100 years, we know far less about gender gaps in the labor force participation of immigrants across a wide span of host societies. Prior studies have established that immigrant women are doubly disadvantaged in terms of labor market outcomes in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. These studies suggest an intriguing question: Are there gender gaps in immigrant labor force participation across destinations countries? In this paper, we investigate the extent to which the double disadvantage exists for immigrant women in a variety of host countries. We also examine how marriage moderates this double disadvantage. For the U.S., although we find that immigrant women have had the lowest labor force participation rates compared to natives and immigrant men since 1960, marital status is an important stratifying attribute that helps explain nativity differences. Extending the analysis to eight other countries reveals strong gender differences in labor force participation and shows how marriage differentiates immigrant women's labor force entry more so than men's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's immigration system is currently undergoing significant change driven by several goals that include (1) a desire to improve the economic outcomes of entering immigrants; (2) an attempt to better respond to short-term regional labor market shortages often associated with commodity booms, and (3) a desire to shift immigration away from the three largest cities to other regions of the country. These goals reflect the implementation of new immigration programs in the 2000s. The paper discusses the recent changes to Canadian immigration policy, examines preliminary evaluations of the new programs and discusses potential future issues emanating from the changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant number of immigrants fail to realise their full potential in the US labour markets, as evidenced by those working in occupations requiring skill levels far below their own level of education. While previous studies have studied immigrant underemployment with a focus on individual labour force characteristics, the spatial dimensions of immigrant underemployment have been largely overlooked. Using microdata from the 2006–2010 American Community Survey and a multilevel research design, this study examines the interaction of metropolitan labour market characteristics with individual labour force’s underemployment experiences, and explores how these interaction effects differ between the foreign-born and the native-born. Results suggest that the probability of individual labour force’s underemployment within any metropolitan area is highly contingent on metropolitan labour market characteristics including ethnic diversity, the proportion of its foreign-born population, the economic structure, and the level of educational attainment of the labour force, in addition to individual characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the extent to which unskilled internal migrants in the United States were motivated by the possibility of upward occupational mobility. Drawing on the literature on contemporary migrant selection and sorting, I argue that workers with greater potential for occupational upgrading may have selected themselves out of counties with low skill premiums and sorted themselves into counties with high skill premiums. Using linked data from the U.S. Census and county-level wage data, I present results consistent with this argument, with a focus on shorter distance movers. Conditioning on migrant status, I find that unskilled migrants who moved to places with high skill premiums were most likely to upgrade. 1 offer some evidence that migrant sorting explains much of this result. My results imply that previous research focusing solely on wage gains provides an incomplete picture of the factors motivating east-west migration in nineteenth century America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has established that immigrants who possess host-country human capital fare better on employment outcomes relative to those with foreign credentials. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of retraining on the employment status of older immigrants to Canada. Using the three waves of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC), cross-sectional and longitudinal logistic regression models are conducted to test whether the probability of being employed is significantly related to retraining, while controlling for gender, age at arrival, immigration category, visible minority status, marital status, dependents in the household, highest level of education obtained outside of Canada, language proficiency, recognition of foreign work experience, health, and social networks. The results reveal that retraining at wave 2 is significantly related to the probability of being employed at wave 2. Longitudinally, a different pattern emerged in which the probability of being employed at wave 3 is greatest among those who did not pursue retraining at wave 1. Gender does not moderate the association between retraining and employment status for any of the waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain drain is a core economic policy problem for many developing countries today. Does relative inequality in source and destination countries influence the brain-drain phenomenon? We explore human capital selectivity during the period 1820-1909. We apply age heaping techniques to measure human capital selectivity of international migrants. In a sample of 52 source and five destination countries we find selective migration determined by relative anthropometric inequality in source and destination countries. Other inequality measures confirm this. The results remain robust in OLS and Arellano-Bond approaches. We confirm the Roy-Borjas model of migrant self-selection. Moreover, we find that countries like Germany and UK experienced a small positive effect, because the less educated emigrated in larger numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the economic repercussions of the U.S. government's granting amnesty to illegal immigrants since the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). Economic consequences, including an increase of tax revenues, the improvement of the economic conditions of immigrant families, the loss of a cheap, flexible workforce and an increase of government transfers, are discussed. An overview of the history of U.S government policy towards illegal immigrants, including the 1996 Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and the 1997 Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), is presented.

We investigate the relative wealth position of immigrant households residing in Australia, Germany, and the United States. In Germany and the United States, wealth differentials stem from differences in the educational attainment and demographic characteristics of the native and immigrant populations, rather than income differentials. In contrast, the small nativity wealth gap in Australia exists because immigrants to Australia do not translate their relative educational and demographic advantage into a wealth advantage. Overall, we find substantial disparity in the economic well-being of immigrant and native families which is largely consistent with domestic labor markets and immigration policies. ( JEL F22, D31) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the economically disadvantaged position of refugees. We use survey data of refugees from Somalia, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia in the Netherlands, to analyze refugees’ odds of employment and their occupational status. In line with human capital and social capital theory, we find that host country specific education, work experience, language proficiency, and contacts with natives are positively related to the chances of employment and occupational status. The study shows that health problems, integration courses, and the time spent in refugee reception centers form important additional explanations of the economic integration of refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, Greece, along with other Southern EU member states, has experienced a transformation from a net emigration to a net destination country. This paper attempts to provide an assessment of the economic costs and benefits of the recent immigration flows into Greece. Based on a closer examination of the economic arguments it is argued that Greece's recent immigration experience can be seen as a win-win story both for the host economy and the immigrants themselves. In particular, ample evidence suggests that immigrants offered a solution to the chronic labor shortages in agriculture, while their presence provided also answers to long-standing growth impediments (bottlenecks) of the Greek economy. At the same time, the majority of immigrants managed to improve their lot and to integrate in the receiving society. However, this positive overall assessment is at odds with prevailing attitudes and political perceptions which give far greater emphasis to negative features than is warranted by economic considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of planning. They include "The Fall and Rise of the Local Community: A Comparative and Historical Perspective," by Hellmut Wollman, "The Compact Versus the Dispersed City: History of Planning Ideas on Sofia's Urban Form," by Sonia Hirt, and "A Paradigm for Practice," by Ronald D. Brunner.

This study examined the effects of social capital upon the economic adaptation of 2336 primarily Latin American and Asian immigrants and refugees residing in Miami-Fort Lauderdale and San Diego. A multivariate, cross-sectional survey design was used. It was found that social capital, as indicated by respondents' social networks, workplace ethnic composition, informal assistance and formal assistance received, had minimal impact upon economic adaptation, as indicated by employment status, public assistance utilization, and earnings, after controlling for human capital, household composition, citizenship, English ability, and gender. The findings cast doubt upon the theory of social capital as a determinant of immigrant and refugee economic adaptation, while supporting the important role of human capital, citizenship, English ability, and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]