New Scenarios for Old Path: Does the Northeast Migrant Suffer Wage Discrimination in the Brazilian Southeast Region?

Abstract

Regional inequality encouraged Brazilian internal migration throughout the 20th century. Despite the advance in migratory return flows since the 1980s, the Northeast continues to be the main source and the Southeast the main recipient region. The present study has as main objective to verify if the northeastern migrant is subject to discrimination in the labor market in the Southeast region as a result of his region of birth, when compared to the other migrants. The analysis was carried out for male migrants, using data from the 2015 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). In general, through the decomposition of Oaxaca-Blinder with Heckman's correction, the discriminatory effect related to the region of birth when comparing non-white northeastern migrants with those from the northern region. In the other comparisons made between migrants, it was found that the wage difference between northeastern and those born in other regions, white and non-white, is explained by the educational discrepancy.