![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/shutterstock_616326425-300x225.jpg\")
\u00a9 Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n
Labour economics classically predicts that wages are determined by supply and demand. Theoretically, if demand remains constant, emigration should increase wages in countries of origin (decreasing labour supply) and decrease wages in receiving countries (increasing labour supply). A malthusian vision of the economy also assumes that the arrival of new-comers in a market of limited jobs will leave some workers without employment or drive previously employed ones out of their jobs. The view\u00a0 that immigration decreases natives\u2019 wages and generates unemployment are widely held. An alternative theory suggests that immigrants also consume in the destination country, hence increasing local demand, and\/or that local production expands, now that additional labor is available. We need to try and empirically distinguish the competing theories from each other. We also need to examine if this is what is happening on empirical grounds at local levels?<\/p>\n
Causality is Difficult to Establish<\/h4>\n
Some studies show that the wage curve corresponds to what is implied by the first type of theory: immigration will decrease wages\u00a0 by 3 to 4 % for a 10% increase in workers in a given skill-experience group(1)<\/sup><\/a>George J. Borjas, “The Labor Demand Curve is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market<\/a>“, The Quarterly Journal of Economics<\/em>, November 2003.<\/span><\/span>