Out-migration of immigrants: Implications for assimilation analysis

The labor market behavior of immigrants is studied in relation to the propensity to outmigrate. Utilizing a large micro dataset for individuals in Norway, which enables identification of out-migrants, I find in line with other studies that attachment to the labor market influences positively on the propensity to stay in the host country. Among the individuals in the labor force I find that out-migrants originally from Non-OECD countries are negatively selected in terms of labor market earnings, from the pool of Non-OECD immigrants. Among immigrants from OECD countries a more mixed picture arises, with the out-migrants drawn from both extremes of the earnings distribution. Further, I find some indications that immigrants in the upper part of the earnings distribution for OECD immigrants are highly mobile and consequently stay only a very short time in the host country.