Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20298 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1063
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper analyzes how the implicit difference in time horizons between refugees and economic immigrants affects subsequent human capital investments and wage assimilation. The analysis uses the 1980/1990 Integrated Public Use Samples of the Census to study labor market outcomes of immigrants who arrived in the U.S. from 1975 to 1980. I find that in 1980 refugee immigrants in this cohort earned 6 percent less and worked 14 percent fewer hours than economic immigrants. Both had about the same level of English skills. The two immigrant groups had made substantial gains by 1990; however, refugees had made greater gains. In fact, the labor market outcomes of refugee immigrants surpassed those of economic immigrants. In 1990, refugees from the 1975-1980 arrival cohort earned 20 percent more, worked 4 percent more hours, and improved their English skills by 11 percent relative to economic immigrants. The higher rates of human capital accumulation for refugee immigrants contribute to these findings.
Subjects: 
refugee and economic immigrants
human capital investment
wage growth
JEL: 
J24
J31
F22
C81
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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