Country of origin and employment prospects among immigrants: an analysis of south–south and north–south migrants to South Africa

Abstract

We study the relationship between country of origin and employment prospects for immigrants to South Africa, an emerging host country characterized by high levels of unemployment, labour market imperfections and a scarcity of skills. Using the 2001 South African census, we estimate the probability of being employed for working-age immigrant men and South African internal migrants. We find that, conditional on individual characteristics and education levels, the probability of being employed varies by country of origin, and that it is different for immigrants relative to native internal migrants. Immigrants from advanced countries outperform natives, while those from certain central, west-African and Asian countries underperform them. Additionally, results indicate that education increases the probability of employment for immigrants from all countries. These probabilities converge at high levels of education, resulting in greater dispersion of employment probabilities across countries at lower levels of education.