The Impact of Immigration on the Labour Market Outcomes of New Zealanders

Author: Dave Mare and Steven Stillman

This research estimates the impact of inflows of recent immigrants on the wages and employment of earlier immigrants, the New Zealand-born workers, and recent immigrants themselves. Generally, overseas research has found that immigration has a small negative effect on the wages of non-immigrants.

Theoretically, new immigrants will reduce the wages of New Zealand-born workers with whom they compete most directly – namely those in the same local area and in the same skill group (''''substitutability''''). However, if the mix of skills that immigrants bring is sufficiently different from the mix of skills in the New Zealand-born workforce, it could have the effect of raising the wages of non-immigrants with different skills (''''complementarity'''').

     • See all publications by Dave Mare

     • See all publications by Steven Stillman

All publications in subject category: Immigration - Economic (including labour market)

     · Cultivating the Knowledge Economy in New Zealand
     · Economic Impacts of Immigration: Scenarios using a Computable General Equilibrium Model of the New Zealand Economy
     · Fiscal Impacts of Migrants to New Zealand
     · Housing Markets and Migration: Evidence from New Zealand
     · Immigrants in New Zealand: A Study of their Labour Market Outcomes
     · Immigrants in the New Zealand Labour Market: a Cohort Analysis using 1981, 1986 and 1996 Census Data
     · International Trade Negotiations and the Trans-Border Movement of People: A Review of the Literature
     · Literature Review on the Economic Impact of Immigration
     · Migrants in New Zealand: An analysis of Labour Market Outcomes for Working Aged Migrants Using 1996 and 2001 Census Data
     · Skilled migrants in New Zealand: a study of settlement outcomes
     · Skilled Migrants in New Zealand: Employers’ Perspectives
     · The Economic Impact of Immigration on Housing in New Zealand 1991–2016
     · The Integration of Highly Skilled Migrants into the Labour Market: Implications for New Zealand Business
     · The Labour Market Adjustment of Immigrants in New Zealand

All publications in subject category: Labour force and employment, size and structure

     · 45 Plus: Choices in the labour market. Final Report – Stage 1 Review of literature on programmes of career information, advice and guidance for mature non-participants
     · 45 Plus: Choices in the labour market. Final Report – Stage 2 Quantitative Survey
     · 45 Plus: Choices in the labour market. Final Report – Stage 3 Qualitative Survey
     · An overview of New Zealand and international research on the future of work.
     · Decisions about Caring and Working
     · Determining the relative labour force status of Maori and non-Maori using a multinomial logit model
     · Forces for Change in the Future Labour Market of New Zealand
     · Job-loss and labour market outcomes under rapid structural adjustment: The case for New Zealand
     · Labour Force Participation over the last ten years
     · Men’s participation in unpaid care: A review of the literature
     · Pacific Islands Peoples in the Labour Market
     · Prime-aged Males who are Not in the Labour Force
     · Skilled Migrants in New Zealand: Employers’ Perspectives
     · The Labour Market Adjustment of Immigrants in New Zealand
     · Towards Building A New Consensus About New Zealand’s Productivity
     · Workforce 2010