Are Immigrants Favorably Self-Selected? An Economic Analysis

Abstract

One of the standard propositions in the migration literature is that migrants tend to be favorably “self-selected” for labor market success. That is, economic migrants are described as tending on average to be more able, ambitious, aggressive, entrepreneurial, or otherwise more favorably selected than similar individuals who choose to remain in their place of origin. Economic migrants are those who move from one place of work and residence to another, either within a country or across international boundaries, primarily because of their own economic opportunities. The favorable selectivity for labor market success of migrants would be less intense among those for whom other motives are important, such as tied-movers, refugees, and ideological migrants. In recent years there have been challenges to the general proposition of the favorable selectivity of migrants. This chapter considers alternative specifications of the migration model that are relevant for the issue of migrant selectivity.

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