Wages and migrant labor

Abstract

Better living conditions in Western countries attract large numbers of immigrants from developing countries. In many developed nations there is both concern over maintaining high welfare standards under the pressure of massive unskilled immigration and interest in attracting highly skilled workers to boost economic growth. Scholarly research has tried to understand the costs and benefits of migration for host and source countries, immigrants themselves, and employers and workers who are directly or indirectly affected by immigrants. However, the focus is on static effects: not much is known about the contribution of immigrants to economic growth.