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The recruitment and retention of foreign talent are crucial dimensions of the global education and labour markets. This paper examines how entwined migration policies and corporate practices shape the development and flow of international skill. I pair an original dataset of employment histories with 105 interviews with skilled migrants and institutional actors to examine the process of skill and knowledge formation among foreign-born workers in the United States and return migrants in India. The findings show that employer-sponsored visas constrain the development of foreign skill and inefficiencies in the implementation of H-1B visas andgreen cards are contributing to return migration. Return migrants leave the United States with knowledge and skills in STEM and business that they developed while studying and working in the United States. At the same time, multinational employers are increasingly conceptualising migration experience as a skill, giving return migrants an advantage in their home labour markets. The findings of this paper illustrate how interactions between state and corporate institutions shape the process of skill formation throughout the migration journey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1990, a temporary-to-permanent pathway was established for highly skilled workers admitted to the United States under non-immigrant programmes. This paper argues that this policy shift has allowed employers to play a crucial role in the immigration of highly skilled workers, thereby creating labour-market institutional selection that gives a salary advantage to highly skilled temporarily admitted workers retained in the US. Through analyses of the salary differentials among admission-category groups, the paper finds that the salary advantage is based on recruitment from Western countries, adjustment from temporary to permanent status after a second employer screening, working in the information technology sector and the private sector, holding a supervisory position, or having a skill-matched job, all of which are consequences of institutional selection rather than individual self-selection. The results also reveal a difference between those admitted from abroad and those recruited from graduating foreign students in US higher-education institutions, which suggests a distinction between overseas and domestic hiring. Policy implications for the US and other receiving countries are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys a range of contemporary issues regarding illegal immigration in the United States, with a focus on the consequences of undocumented immigrants on the economy. The analysis looks at the effects of illegal immigration on jobs and wages in a dual labour market model and the fiscal impacts of illegal immigrants (taxes paid and costs imposed on society through use of public services). The paper argues that illegal immigration has a positive impact on the US economy; although illegal immigrants impose a fiscal cost at the state and local levels, this cost should be addressed by efficiently allocating resources between the federal and state governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-skilled immigration to the United States is a growing area in immigration, labour and policy research. Research on this subject focuses on the labour market impact of the largest skilled immigrant group: H-1Bs, temporary visa-holders with at least a baccalaureate degree. Many studies have demonstrated that these workers are paid the prevailing wage, yet they continue to be recruited despite unemployment and wage stagnation in H-1B sectors. In this paper I argue that, to understand the attractiveness of H-1Bs, we must look beyond their effects on wages and unemployment, and frame the flow of skilled migrants to the US in terms of the broader advantages they provide: flexible labour, the most up-to-date skills, and the lower expectations of immigrants regarding working conditions and benefits. I broaden the debate on skilled immigrants by examining the relationship between recently arrived immigrant status and two crucial labour market dimensions: contingent employment and eligibility for employer-subsidised health-care and retirement benefits. In addition, wage differentials are reassessed with contingent status, years since immigration, and high-tech industry controlled. My findings support the conclusions of prior studies that H-1Bs are not 'cheap labour'; rather, this study shows they are utilised as flexible labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A demographic transition to greater ethno-racial diversity, the product in part of large-scale immigration over decades, will create challenges and opportunities for Western societies in coming decades. In this paper, based on our study of the USA and four Western European countries, we sift evidence from the first decade of the twenty-first century to look for clues about the possible consequences of the transition for the integration of the second generation, specifically, the children of low-status immigrants. We find unmet challenges when it comes to educational attainment and early labour-market position. That is, although on average the second generation advances beyond its parents, in each society it lags well behind its agemates from the native majority. Yet we also find, using data from the USA, that segments of the second generation are experiencing social mobility into the upper tiers of the occupational hierarchy and socially integrating with members of the majority group, arguably expanding the societal mainstream. This paradoxical picture, we argue, captures crucial dynamics that will affect the near future in the wealthy West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine how local labour market contexts matter for the Hispanic adult children of immigrants in the United States. Specifically, I consider how these workers fit into ethnic divisions of labour in five metropolitan areas: the traditional immigrant cities of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, and the newer immigrant gateways of Atlanta and Phoenix. I focus on the changing economies of these cities in the 1990s, and how industrial changes affect the jobs and relative wages available to immigrants and their adult children. I also examine the extent to which the adult children of immigrants are occupationally clustered in 'immigrant jobs'. Intergenerational occupational shifts vary by metropolitan area, but are heavily gendered across all of them. I also discuss the interactions of other scales of context, since state and national-level legislation, local organising efforts and internal migration all shape the settings within which the children of immigrants come of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in U.S. deportations has resulted in a growing number of studies focused on the reintegration experiences of these migrants in their home communities. Based on interviews with deportees shortly after their arrival home, these studies paint a picture of economic gloom, finding that deportees are too frequently stigmatised by governments and employers and consequently unemployed or working on the margins of their home economies. In contrast, our longitudinal and comparative study, which draws on the findings of 93 deported and voluntary migrants in Leon, Mexico, finds convergence in the labour market trajectories and social mobility outcomes of deportees and non-deportees, which reduces initial labour market disparities over time. We found that deportation can stymie migrants’ initial labour market re-entry, often relegating former migrants to undesirable jobs in the informal labour market, while they re-familiarise themselves with their local labour markets and identify promising opportunities. Yet, in the long run, successful reintegration depends primarily on the acquisition and mobilisation of human and financial capital across the migratory circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant body of literature suggests that skin-tone segmentation is a salient characteristic of inter-group economic inequality in the United States. Yet, empirical investigations of this social phenomenon and its impact on labour-market outcomes for worker’s in the United States remains limited or focused on the impact of skin tone on wages. This article examines whether or not phenotypic variability in skin tone among workers influenced levels of job quality experienced during the recessionary era (2007–2012). Data from thePuerto Ricans and the Impact of the Great Recession Surveywere used to estimate a Poisson Regression with Endogenous Treatment Effects to consider the impact that variations in skin tone have on levels of job quality experienced by workers. Findings suggest evidence of skin-tone labour-market segmentation, as workers with darker skin shades experienced lower levels of job quality than those workers with lighter skin tones within and across larger racial and ethnic groups. The results also suggest important regional variations in the experience of skin-tone labour-market segmentation in the United States. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of the findings for racial economic inequalities and patterns of social stratification in the contemporary United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses long-standing normative claims that liberalism-understood as the priority of economic and political liberty, neutrality in the public sphere, the universal application of human rights, and the requirement to treat all subjects equally-is inadequate in the context of deep, migration-driven diversity. Beginning with the assumption that liberalism-as-an-integration-paradigm must be evaluated empirically, the article examines the immigration experience of two liberal states: France and the United States. Evidence from these important countries of immigration demonstrates that universal, difference-blind policies that are suspicious of claims to difference in the public sphere reduce prejudice and promote positive intra-community attitudes (France), while limited income support and dynamic labour markets promote economic integration (the United States). Far from being an inadequate relic of a simpler age, liberalism is the best framework for accommodating diverse societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecuadorian emigration to the United States reveals a classic male-led exodus from rural regions faced by long-term economic decline. Occupational results reflect this model, and the general openness of the American labour market. Jobs are gender-segregated, but human capital effects are evident; niches do not dominate male or female experience, nor do they seem likely to persist. Recent emigration to Spain is distinct: sparked by a sudden economic collapse, it emerges from an urban population with relatively high human capital. It was initially led by women, many of whom left families behind, a rare event in migration history. The labour market in Spain is not only segmented by sex but, for women, characterised by an extraordinary concentration in the lowest occupational category, domestic service. This differential comparative outcome can be explained by the historical setting of the two flows and the gender distinction in migration leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With micro data from the US Census for 1980 and 1990, we document the growth of recent immigrants across New York metropolitan area job structure and test for the effects of recent immigrants on mean job earnings for native-born white, black and Hispanic male workers. During the 1980s foreign-born workers increased from 31 to almost 50 per cent of all workers in 'secondary' jobs, the lowest paying jobs that employ about one-third of the region's workforce. While employment trends for nativeborn minorities and recent immigrants were positively related among the best professional, managerial and technical jobs in the 1980s, there is evidence of replacement for all three native-born groups in the less skilled (subordinate primary and secondary) parts of the metropolitan job structure. We find negative effects of the growth in recent immigrant share of job employment on the change in earnings for white and black native-born groups, but little or no overall effect on Hispanic workers or recent immigrants themselves. Downward wage effects were strongest in secondary jobs for black men and among good blue-collar jobs (subordinate primary) jobs for Hispanic men. Among the best jobs, recent immigrants show higher wage growth where their employment growth was fastest, suggested a positive 'niche' effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the Puerto Rican migration within the broader context of Caribbean migration to the United States. Conceptualizations of the labor market incorporation of migrants; Examination on the historical origins of Caribbean migration to the U.S.; Discussion on identification strategies adopted by Puerto Ricans.