Do Open Borders Lead to Different Types of Migrants?

Abstract

We study a change in immigration policy whereby the UK unexpectedly annulled visa requirements for nationals of new member states of the EU. We find that the newly arrived migrants from these countries were likelier to be employed in lower-ranking occupations, but this greater propensity erodes after accounting for the spatial distribution of job opportunities at the migrant's arrival and region-related demand factors during their job search. They were more regionally dispersed than their compatriots who had needed a visa to enter the UK while possessing comparable measures of human capital used to assess visa applications as them. The influence of labour market related factors also largely accounts for gaps in the occupational distributions of migrants and that of the UK-born. Many of the newly arrived without visa requirements may have downgraded occupations discriminately, with their average weekly earnings exceeding that of their counterparts in higher-ranking occupations despite working in a lower-ranking occupation.