Foundations of Migration Economics
IZA Prize in Labor Economics Series

This book presents a series of research articles written over the past four decades by leading economists George J. Borjas and Barry R. Chiswick. Borjas and Chiswick are leading experts on the adjustment of immigrants in their destination country and their impact on the economy. Although they worked separately throughout their careers, and did not always agree, their intellectual interaction has greatly increased understanding of the economic consequences of international migration and immigration policy across developed immigrant receiving countries. This volume brings together their contributions for the first time to demonstrate how public policy issues on immigration have evolved over time. An in-depth analysis of the key issues relating to international migration Foundations of Migration Economics explores the assimilation of immigrants, focusing on the earning changes of immigrants with a longer duration in the host economy; how immigrant networks and ethnic enclaves influence the labor market and linguistic adjustment of immigrants; determinants of language proficiency and to what extent pre-migration skills are effectively employed by the destination; and the effect of immigration on the earnings of earlier waves of immigrants and native-born workers.

George J. Borjas is the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics in 2011. Professor Borjas is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at IZA. He is the author of several books, including Immigration Economics (Harvard University Press, 2014), Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy (Princeton University Press, 1999), and the widely used textbook Labor Economics (McGraw-Hill, 2016), now in its seventh edition. His latest book is We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative, (W.W. Norton, 2016). He has also published over 150 articles in books and scholarly journals. In 2016, Politico listed Professor Borjas #17 in the list of the 50 "thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics...For telling it like it really is on immigration". Barry R. Chiswick is a Professor of Economics and Professor of International Affairs at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. He has published numerous scholarly books, research articles, book chapters, and op-ed newspaper articles. He has received numerous awards for his pioneering research in Labor Economics, with an emphasis on human capital, income distribution, the adjustment and impact on the host economy of immigration, the economics of language, and the human capital and labor market achievements of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, among other topics. Professor Chiswick has had an impact on the public policy debate on international migration through his research, op-ed newspaper and magazine articles, his testimony before both houses of the U.S. Congress, his media interviews, and his consulting for various government agencies. Benjamin Elsner is an Assistant Professor of Economics at University College Dublin. His main research lies at the intersection of labor economics, public economics and microeconometrics. While his