Linking Social and Spatial Mobility in Immigrant Incorporation

Jamie Goodwin-White, University of Southampton

This paper seeks to ascertain (1) the extent to which immigrant-native wage differentials are the product of the differing internal geography of immigrant and native-born groups in the U.S.; and (2) the extent to which immigrants’ wages are sensitive to the selectivity of internal migration. As such, it attempts to re-focus some of the discussion on immigrant economic incorporation with an understanding of how the geography of immigrants and natives in the U.S. matters both for immigrant incorporation, and discussions of these processes. I first weight wage regressions by relative shares of immigrant and native-born groups (by metropolitan area) to determine the extent to which geography plays a part in the wage gaps between immigrants and natives. Second, I assess the importance of internal migration in determining wage outcomes, incorporating a component examining the selectivity of inter-metropolitan migrants.