Do the Native Born and Foreign Born Show Differential Migratory Responses to Immigration and Labor Market Conditions?

Douglas T. Gurak, Cornell University
Mary M. Kritz, Cornell University

We study migratory responses of native- and foreign-born men to recent immigration in U.S. labor markets. Preliminary analysis indicates that foreign-born men leave high immigration areas at comparable or higher rates than do the native born, suggesting that forces other than recent immigration drive internal migration. The analysis focuses on individual and contextual economic and social correlates of migratory responses of foreign- and native-born men. The 1990 and 2000 Census 5% PUMS files provide the core data. The contextual units are labor market regions. The multi-level analysis assesses, net of individual characteristics, whether there is a difference between foreign- and native-born males in the likelihood of out-migration from labor markets of high immigration, whether the migratory responses of foreign- and native-born males differ by origin characteristics of recent immigrants, and whether the migratory responses of foreign- and native-born males differ by labor market context.