NTCA Workers in Mexico: A Job Market Insertion Analysis

Liliana Meza Gonzalez , National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI)
Carla Pederzini, Universidad Iberomericana

Even though still small, population from the NTCA in Mexico grew substantially in the recent years. The majority of these migrants belong to the working age group, which means they will most likely seek to join the labor force. We analyze the conditions under which migrants from the NTCA participate in the Mexican labor market. Using data from the Mexican Census of 2000 and EIC 2015 we compare income and fringe benefits of NTCA and Mexican workers. We analyze how being a migrant form the NTCA affects unemployment, working in the informal sector, working without pay and self-employment. Our initial theoretical framework based on Chiswick, (1978) and Carliner (1980) implies lower income for migrants. However, preliminary findings from EIC (2015) suggest otherwise. We intend to tackle the phenomenon using the Borjas (1985) approach, which implies that different migrant cohorts offer different levels of human capital to the labor market.

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 Presented in Session 7. Migration & Urbanization