ABSTRACT
This chapter uses economic theory to analyze the decision to emigrate and the labor-market effects of immigration. It also examines how immigrants are likely to differ from others in personal characteristics, and what factors influence whether immigration raises the per-capita real income of the native-born in the host country. The chapter analyses the causes and consequences of worker mobility the larger category of which immigration is an important subset. Worker mobility plays a critical role in market economies. Immigration of cheap labor clearly benefits consumers using the output of this labor. Economic theory suggests that those with longer time horizons are more likely to make human-capital investments. Economic theory suggests that immigrants and criminals are likely to have very different orientations toward the future. The emphasis on job change suggests that human-capital theory can help us understand which workers are most likely to undertake investments in geographic mobility and the directions in which mobility flows will take place.
