How would an immigration surge affect your pay cheque?

WHAT is the difference between a noodle seller and a fruit grower, apart from the obvious? Or a housekeeper and a machine operator? A firefighter and a technical support worker? A good deal, in terms of how they might be affected by an influx of immigrants.

Immigration, long a simmering issue in open economies from the United States to New Zealand, has become political fodder again in a coronavirus-ravaged world of furloughs and layoffs. US President Donald Trump, seeking re-election on Tuesday, has tightened the criteria of the country's visa for high-skilled workers. Singapore has raised the salary floor for foreign job-seekers, effectively making them less attractive to employers. Malaysia and Kuwait have simply imposed or proposed limits on the number of foreigners. And Switzerland recently held a referendum to decide if it would end immigration from the European Union. (The Swiss said nay.)

Foreigners are feeling the chill in many countries as competition for work heats up. Yet how does immigration affect labour markets exactly? Much has been studied about factors such as the extent of immigration, workers' skill level as well as the nature of jobs. We now know that the impact of immigration on native workers' employment and wages vary by skill, region, sector and occupation, but we know little about how these dimensions interact.