Changes in the relative earnings gap between natives and immigrants along the US-Mexico border

Using 1990 and 2000 U.S. census data, this study investigates changes in immigrant/native earnings disparities for workers in U.S. cities along the international border with Mexico vis-a-vis the U.S. interior during the 1990s. Our findings-based on estimating earnings functions and employing the Juhn-Murphy-Pierce (1993, JPE) wage decomposition technique -indicate that the average earnings of Mexican immigrants along the U. S.-Mexico border improved relative to those accrued by their counterparts in the U. S. interior and by otherwise similar U.S.-born Mexican Americans between 1990 and 2000. However, when comparing Mexican-born workers to U. S.-born non-Hispanic whites, the immigrant border-earnings penalty remained statistically unchanged.