International migration: remittances and subsequent labor market performance

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the rewards of international labor migration to sending country(s) and to immigrants in the receiving country(s). Earnings were used as a measure of the labor market performance of immigrants in the U.S. labor market, whereas the volume of the flow of remittances into Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey was used as a measure of the rewards of migration to sending countries.

A human capital model of earnings was used to estimate the influence of various explanatory variables on earnings. Time variables representing the time of entry into the U.S. were included to capture the effect of time elapsed since migration on earnings. Immigrants' earnings reported in the 1982 NSF and June, 1988 CPS were analyzed through the comparisons with native-born by race and among foreign-born by race, place-of-birth, and years since migration. A time-series model was used to estimate the influence of the variation in the economic activities in receiving country(s) on remittance flows.

Using two different surveys, the results revealed that there is an earnings differential between natives and immigrants. This earnings gap is in favor of professional immigrants, whereas it is in favor of U.S. natives in the general population. Using the CPS data, only 27% of earnings gap is explained by the endowment factor. Using the NSF data, immigrants' earnings equal that of natives' after 10 years of immigration, while using the CPS data immigrants' earnings equal that of natives after 2 3 years. Among immigrants, there is earnings differential due to the time of entry. Recent immigrants earn less than earlier immigrants.

The variations in the level of economic activities in the receiving country(s) are important determinants of the volume of remittance inflows. These variations explained nearly 90-98% of the total variation in the remittance flowing to Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey.