Are College Graduate Immigrants on Work Visa Cheaper Than Natives?

Omid Bagheri ()
Additional contact information
Omid Bagheri: Kent State University

Journal of Labor Research, 2023, vol. 44, issue 3, No 3, 228-260

Abstract: Abstract The use of H-1B and other work visas to hire foreign professionals in the United States has been controversial and has caused policy debates. Using the 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017 cycles of the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG), this study examines the wage gap between college graduate immigrants working in the U.S. on a work visa and their native counterparts. We find that over the course of 2010-2017, temporary work visa holders, on average, have a 0.258 log point (approximately 25.8%) wage premium over natives. This premium, however, increases from 15.6% in 2010 to 31.9% in 2017. Although the differences between the two groups in socioeconomic and demographic factors explain the majority of this wage gap, due to existence of some unobservable characteristics, some portion of the gap remains unexplained. According to our results, this wage premium is larger for immigrants born in English-speaking countries and those who obtained their highest degrees from a non-U.S. university or college. It is also larger among bachelor’s degree holders, and among those having a degree or job in computer related or engineering fields. However, we find no such a wage gap in certain occupations/fields or among doctoral and professional degree holders. Our results can therefore lead to important policy implications, such as changing skilled worker immigration rules.

Keywords: Immigration; Wage differentials; Higher education; STEM; H-1B (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J15 J31 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12122-023-09349-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jlabre:v:44:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s12122-023-09349-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/12122

DOI: 10.1007/s12122-023-09349-2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Labor Research is currently edited by Ozkan Eren

More articles in Journal of Labor Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().