The migrant penalty in Latin America: Experimental evidence from job recruiters

We conduct an experiment with human resources recruiters in Ecuador to investigate the extent to which Venezuelan migrants are penalized in the formal labor market, despite being from a population that shares cultural, historical, and linguistic characteristics with natives and has, on average, higher levels of education. Recruiters were tasked with evaluating pairs of candidate profiles for different jobs, proposing salaries for each, and making hiring recommendations. Candidate profiles were comparable in observable characteristics, with one candidate in each pair randomly designated as a Venezuelan migrant. We find robust evidence of a migrant penalty across all outcomes. Recruiters’ demographic characteristics, work experience, reasoning ability, and personality traits do not predict a preference for natives. Instead, there is suggestive evidence that the penalty is larger in jobs requiring greater local knowledge or public-facing interaction.