Differences in Immigrants Wage Gap: Evidence from Chile

This paper analyses migratory wage gaps in Chile taking into account differences in their characteristics in order to improve the comparability between groups. Using data from the Chilean National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (CASEN) we employ a matching procedure developed by Nopo (2008) which allow to estimate a common support and the mean counterfactual wage for immigrants. It is found that immigrants tend to do better in labour markets, earning on average more than natives in both 2015 and 2017. The heterogeneity of the immigrant population is relevant as those from countries with high Afro-descendant or Hispanic population earn on average -16% than natives. Scarce time spent in the country is an important determinant of their insertion in local labour markets since it explain near 60% of the gap. In fact, more recent immigration from countries with high African/Hispanic population have tend to earn -26% less. This cannot be explained by time spent in the country alone, so some discrimination could be relevant. These claims are supported by the finding that immigrants of the same group, but with more than five years of residence, are still subject to occupational segregation