Return Migration Decisions and Declining Earnings: Immigrants in Linked Survey and Administrative Data

Randall Akee and Maggie R. Jones

Journal of Human Resources, 2026, vol. 61, issue 3

Abstract: Using a novel panel data set of recent immigrants to the US (2005–2007) from individual-level linked US Census Bureau data and Internal Revenue Service records, we measure the impact of return migration on immigrants’ earnings growth and earnings assimilation. We show that by ten years after arrival, almost 40 percent of recent immigrants have return migrated. We show, for the first time, that return migrants experience downward earnings mobility over two to three years prior to their return migration, suggesting that declining earnings are closely related to emigration decisions.

JEL-codes: F22 J15 J31 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0722-12457R2
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