Aspiration wages, migration and urban unemployment

Abstract

This paper considers the hypothesis that migrant job‐seekers have lower income aspirations than their non‐migrant counterparts in urban areas and argues that if so the urban unemployment rate may be an ineffective deterrent to migration while a reduction in urban wage rates may increase rather than reduce migration. The non‐deterrence of unemployment is even more likely if large numbers of urban unemployed become ‘unemployable’ through their experience of unemployment. The paper draws on data from a survey of unemployed in Kingston, Jamaica.