Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration

This article uses 1990 census data to study the effects of immigrant inflows on occupation‐specific labor market outcomes. I find that intercity mobility rates of natives and earlier immigrants are insensitive to immigrant inflows. However, occupation‐specific wages and employment rates are systematically lower in cities with higher relative supplies of workers in a given occupation. The results imply that immigrant inflows over the 1980s reduced wages and employment rates of low‐skilled natives in traditional gateway cities like Miami and Los Angeles by 1–3 percentage points.