From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road?1 The wage returns to migration in Britain

We examine the impact of internal migration in Britain on the growth in men's hourly wages using nationally representative panel data. To do this we compare wage outcomes for migrants against different control groups, and explicitly allow for the potential endogeneity of the migration decision. Our results demonstrate the existence of a wage growth premium to migration. The size of this premium depends on any associated job mobility and the reason for migration, and is largest for continuously employed men who migrated for job related reasons. The wage profiles of migrants and other workers diverge substantially in the two years post-migration.