Migration and the urban labour market: The case of San Salvador

This article analyzes the employment and incomes of migrants in the city of San Salvador. The study finds that, both rural-urban and urban-urban migrants experience income gains and are increasingly employed in the formal sector. However, the upward mobility of urban-urban migrants is much larger. Compared with urban natives, these migrants have higher income levels and employment rates after five years of urban residence, while rural-urban migrants earn much less and tend to remain in the informal sector more frequently. This evidence is contrary to findings obtained in other studies, for example Brazil, which showed that urban natives and migrants have comparable levels of income and employment. The authors suggest that the experience of rural-urban migrants is a result of the functioning of the urban labour market. Within this market a mechanism exists whereby access to the high-wage sector is limited by discriminating among workers. As a result, rural-urban migrants, often recognizable by their racial characteristics, are denied access to high-wage jobs.