Do Immigrants Respond to Regional Labor Demand Shocks?

The recent economic boom in the Canadian province of Alberta provides an ideal “natural experiment” to examine immigrants' responses to a strong labor demand outside major metropolitan centers. The key finding of this study based on a unique data set that combines administrative and immigrant records is that not only did immigrants respond to the recent economic boom in Alberta, but that their response was generally stronger than the response of nonimmigrants. We also find, however, a great deal of heterogeneity in the magnitude of the response across different regions and for different categories of immigrants.