Skill-Upgrading and the Savings of Immigrants

This note derives positive and normative implications about the effects of immigration on welfare and the skill composition of the labor force in receiving economies. The main channel through which immigration affects labor-market outcomes is the availability of new loanable funds for investment, which results in endogenous skill-upgrading. Given their high training costs and their lifelong working period, immigrants self-select as net lenders, which facilitates the upgrading of both new generations of natives and migrants. Under sufficient altruism towards future generations, this induces a Pareto-improvement among the current generations of natives.