High skilled immigration and the occupational choices of native workers: the case of Australia

Abstract

Abstract This paper estimates the effect of a major skilled visa programme in Australia on the wages and occupation-specific skills performed by native workers. We combine data from the full population of approved Temporary Work Visa applications with the nationally representative Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) longitudinal survey from 2005–2015. Our findings indicate that skilled international workers increase the wages of natives, and induce native workers to specialize in occupations associated with a high intensity of communication and cognitive skills. We find no evidence of negative effects of the visa programme on the wages of high-skilled or low-skilled native workers, or on previous migrants who may be close substitutes to the skilled visa holders.