Immigrant Wages Converge with Those of Native-Born Americans

The degree and speed at which immigrant wages converge with the wages of native-born Americans are important indicators of economic assimilation.

Although immigrant wages generally converge with those of native-born Americans, legalizing illegal immigrants will hasten overall wage convergence.

The bars show the relative wages of immigrant workers to native workers for each year of entry.

The large number of legal immigrants arriving in these periods could be slowing their wage growth and, thus, might explain their initially low wages relative to native-born Americans who, by and large, are not competing with immigrant workers.

Illegal immigrant workers have lower wages than legal immigrant workers.

Over the entire period of 1995-2017, we estimate that illegal immigrant workers have average wages 11.3 percent below those of legal immigrant workers.

The gap between native and immigrant wages narrows over time, closes in many cases, and sometimes even flips signs.


https://www.cato.org/publications/immigration-research-policy-brief/immigrant-wages-converge-those-native-born-americans