Are Migration Policies that Induce Skilled (Unskilled) Migration Beneficial (Harmful) for the Host Country?

This paper investigates the welfare consequences of immigration policies in a model with two types of labour, skilled and unskilled, and international capital mobility. The paper examines the effect of government policies – which change the immigration cost and causes immigration of one type of labour – on the welfare of natives when the other type of labour and/or capital are also mobile. It is shown that in the absence of capital mobility, if skilled and unskilled labour are highly complementary in production (as attested by many empirical studies), then a decrease in the immigration cost of the net fiscal contributor skilled labour decreases the welfare of natives.