Large low- skilled immigration fl ows infl uence both the distribution of local school resources and also local relative wages, which exert counterbalancing pressures on the local return to schooling. I use the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88) and U.S. Census data to show that low- skilled immigration to an area induces local natives to improve their performance in school, attain more years of schooling, and take jobs that involve communication- intensive tasks for which they (native English speakers) have a comparative advantage. These results point out mechanisms that mitigate the potentially negative effect of immigration on natives' wages. © 2015 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

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labor migration wage skilled labor returns to education comparative advantage United States immigration human capital