Invite only
Imported Inequality? Immigration and Income Inequality in the American States
Ping Xu, James Garand & Ling Zhu
State Politics & Policy Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this article, we use data from the American states from 1996 to 2008 to explore the effects of immigration on income inequality. Empirical evidence from both static and dynamic models shows that the foreign-born population has a strong positive effect on state-level income inequality, even when we control for a range of federal and state political and economic contextual variables. We also find that the positive relationship between immigration and state income inequality is driven primarily by low-skill immigrants (rather than high-skill immigrants), and we provide some evidence that high-skill immigrants lower income inequality for some segments of the income distribution. We conclude that immigration - particularly low-skilled immigration - has an important effect on income inequality in the American states.
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The Wage Impact of the Marielitos: A Reappraisal
George Borjas
NBER Working Paper, September 2015
Abstract:
This paper brings a new perspective to the analysis of the Mariel supply shock, revisiting the question and the data armed with the accumulated insights from the vast literature on the economic impact of immigration. A crucial lesson from this literature is that any credible attempt to measure the wage impact of immigration must carefully match the skills of the immigrants with those of the pre-existing workforce. The Marielitos were disproportionately low-skill; at least 60 percent were high school dropouts. A reappraisal of the Mariel evidence, specifically examining the evolution of wages in the low-skill group most likely to be affected, quickly overturns the finding that Mariel did not affect Miami's wage structure. The absolute wage of high school dropouts in Miami dropped dramatically, as did the wage of high school dropouts relative to that of either high school graduates or college graduates. The drop in the relative wage of the least educated Miamians was substantial (10 to 30 percent), implying an elasticity of wages with respect to the number of workers between -0.5 and -1.5. In fact, comparing the magnitude of the steep post-Mariel drop in the low-skill wage in Miami with that observed in all other metropolitan areas over an equivalent time span between 1977 and 2001 reveals that the change in the Miami wage structure was a very unusual event. The analysis also documents the sensitivity of the estimated wage impact to the choice of a placebo. The measured impact is much smaller when the placebo consists of cities where pre-Mariel employment growth was weak relative to Miami.
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Matthew Wright, Morris Levy & Jack Citrin
Political Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Scholars debate the relative strength of economic and 'socio-psychological' sources of anti-immigrant sentiment. However, the literature often fails to distinguish legal from illegal immigration and therefore overlooks a major instance in which this debate is moot. To address this issue, we develop a theory that recognizes two different modes of evaluating immigrants: "attribute-based" judgment, in which respondents weigh immigrants' desirability based on individual characteristics - human capital, race, language ability, and so on - and "categorical" judgment, which disregards these altogether. Categorical judgments arise when a policy issue triggers blanket considerations of justice or principle that obviate considerations about putative beneficiaries' individual merits, instead evoking overriding beliefs about the desirability of the policy as a whole or casting the entire category as uniformly deserving or undeserving. We use experimental evidence from two national surveys to show that the principal distinction between attitudes toward legal and illegal immigration is not in the relative weight of immigrants' attributes but the much greater prevalence of categorical assessments of illegal immigration policy, much of it rooted in rigid moralistic convictions about the importance of strict adherence to rules and laws.
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Gender, Power, and Emigration From Mexico
Jenna Nobles & Christopher McKelvey
Demography, forthcoming
Abstract:
The prevailing model of migration in developing countries conceives of a risk-diversifying household in which members act as a single entity when making migration decisions. Ethnographic studies challenge this model by documenting gender hierarchy in family decisions and arguing that, in many contexts, men and women have differing views on the value of migration. We assess these perspectives using longitudinal survey data from Mexico. We show that Mexican households are heterogeneous in terms of women's decision-making authority and control over resources, and this variation predicts the subsequent emigration of their male partners to the United States. We then use data from a policy experiment to demonstrate that an exogenous increase in a woman's control over household resources decreases the probability that her spouse migrates. Our findings support the presence of important gender differences in how migration is valued. They also suggest that women's role in these decisions is inadvertently underrepresented in studies of migrant families. Staying is also a migration decision, and it is more likely in homes in which women have greater authority. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that Mexican migration is influenced not only by increases in household resources but also by which members of the household control them.
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Vickie Ybarra, Lisa Sanchez & Gabriel Sanchez
State Politics & Policy Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Great Recession of late 2007 through 2009 had profound negative economic impacts on the U.S. states, with 49 states experiencing revenue decreases in their 2009 budgets representing more than $67.2 billion USD. Also during this period, states enacted a record number of laws related to immigrants residing in their states. We make use of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to examine punitive immigration policy enactment from 2005 to 2012 and conduct a state comparative study using cross-sectional time-series analysis to examine the potential ways in which the economic recession and changing demographics in the states have impacted punitive state immigration policy making. We hypothesize that although anti-immigrant anxieties are driven in part by economic insecurity, they are also impacted by the presence of a large or growing proportion of racialized immigrants. We find that increases in state Hispanic populations and state economic stressors associated with the recession have both led to a greater number of enacted punitive state immigration policies. In addition, we find that changes in the non-Hispanic white populations in the states are also impacting the expression of anti-immigrant attitudes in state policy during this period.
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The Academic Progress of Hispanic Immigrants
Marie Hull
University of North Carolina Working Paper, August 2015
Abstract:
Past research has shown that Hispanic students make test score gains relative to whites as they age through school; however, this finding stands in contrast to the experience of blacks, who show little change in their relative position over the same time frame. Distinguishing Hispanic students by immigrant generation, I find that the children of immigrants (first- and second-generation Hispanics) drive the improvement in Hispanic test scores. Later-generation Hispanics consistently perform slightly below whites, perhaps due to negative selection into ethnic identification. Thus, previous estimates vastly understate the progress of first- and second-generation Hispanic immigrants. From a negative gap in 3rd grade, these students surpass socioeconomically similar whites in math and reading by middle school and end 8th grade as much as a quarter of a standard deviation ahead. Assimilation alone cannot explain this progress; a potential explanation is that immigrant parents create a home environment that fosters achievement.
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Group Boundaries, Immigrant Inclusion, and the Politics of Immigrant-Native Relations
Dina Okamoto & Kim Ebert
American Behavioral Scientist, forthcoming
Abstract:
In multiethnic nation-states experiencing new flows of immigrants, political officials and citizens alike have expressed hostility in the form of demonstrations, campaigns, vandalism, and even policies. Yet local communities have also displayed public support for immigrants in the form of protests and advocacy efforts. Past literature has almost exclusively focused on anti-immigrant activity, using theories of group threat and competition, which suggest that new influxes or large concentrations of immigrants should prompt dominant groups to protect their interests, leading to anti-immigrant attitudes and behaviors. We extend the literature by focusing on pro-immigrant behavior, which we define as efforts initiated by established local residents and organizations to include immigrants in the larger community and/or to improve the lives of immigrants. In contrast to theories of group threat, we put forth the group inclusion model, and contend that demographic and political "threats" operate to break down rather than bolster group boundaries. We also find that when the increasing demographic and political presence of immigrants is coupled with the visibility of immigration, immigrant inclusion thrives. Using a data set of pro-immigrant collective action across 52 U.S. metropolitan areas, we generally find support for our model, and discuss the broader implications for immigrant-native relations.
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Kevin Shih
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
International students have long comprised an important part of U.S. higher education. However, little is known regarding the factors that encourage students from across the world to enroll in U.S. colleges and universities each year. This paper examines the relationship between international enrollment and the openness of the United States' skilled labor market, currently regulated by the H-1B program. Gravity regressions reveal that H-1B visa issuances to a country are positively and significantly related to the number of international students from that country. Causal estimates of the impact of labor market openness are achieved by exploiting a dramatic fall in the H-1B visa cap in October 2003. Triple difference estimates show that the fall in the cap lowered foreign enrollment by 10%.
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The Impact of Skill-Based Immigration Restrictions: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Joyce Chen
Journal of Human Capital, Fall 2015, Pages 298-328
Abstract:
This paper considers the impact of skill-based immigration restrictions, using the Chinese Exclusion Act as a natural experiment. I find that restrictions reduced the average occupational standing of Chinese immigrants, suggesting substitution between observed and unobserved skills. Conversely, children of restricted immigrants have greater human capital than those of unrestricted immigrants, despite restricted immigrants themselves having lower skill. This suggests particularly strong intergenerational transmission of skill among Chinese immigrants of the exclusion era. More generally, the findings indicate that the effects of skill-based restrictions are not always straightforward and may be heterogeneous across groups.
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Silence Speaks: The Relationship between Immigration and the Underreporting of Crime
Carmen Gutierrez & David Kirk
Crime & Delinquency, forthcoming
Abstract:
Scarce in criminological literature is an exploration of whether crime reporting varies geographically. Yet, there are substantive reasons to believe not only that the percentage of crimes reported to the police varies across jurisdictions but also that crime reporting can be explained by ecological characteristics. Drawing upon data from both the National Crime Victimization Survey and the U.S. census, this study examines the relationship between immigration and the likelihood that crimes are reported to the police. Results indicate that crime reporting is inversely related to increases in the relative size of both the noncitizen and foreign-born populations within a metropolitan area, and that the negative effect is greater for violence than for property crime. Implications for the underreporting of crime are discussed.
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Krista Perreira & Lisa Spees
Population Research and Policy Review, October 2015, Pages 641-664
Abstract:
Latino immigrant adolescents have the highest high school dropout rates of any race-ethnic or nativity group in the United States. One potential reason for high dropout rates among Latino immigrant youth is that many are unauthorized entrants. These unauthorized Latino immigrant youth have few opportunities to attend college, and, as they become aware of barriers to their educational progress and employment, they may lower their educational expectations. Using data from the Latino adolescent migration, health, and adaptation project (N = 275), we examine the association of unauthorized entry into the U.S. with the educational expectations of Latino immigrant youth. We find that adolescents entering the U.S. without authorization have lower educational expectations than those who enter with authorization. These differences in their expectations persist after controlling for differences in their pre-migration, migration, and post-migration experiences. Policies and programs that reduce barriers to higher education and labor market opportunities can potentially help to foster higher educational expectations among unauthorized immigrant youth and may promote their high school completion.
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Cooperation, punishment and immigration
Paolo Pin & Brian Rogers
Journal of Economic Theory, December 2015, Pages 72-101
Abstract:
We study the incentive to cooperate in a society comprised of citizens and immigrants. The level of cooperation is governed by a steady state under population dynamics, along with the behavior of individual citizens and immigrants. We provide an equilibrium characterization, exhibiting a uniquely determined positive level of cooperation in society. We then use this framework to study the impact of government programs aimed at punishing immigrants who defect. When agents produce offspring, we show that a consequence of such punishment is that, while the incentive for immigrants to defect decreases, there is an equilibrium substitution effect whereby citizens realize an increased incentive to defect.
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Second-Generation Decline or Advantage? Latino Assimilation in the Aftermath of the Great Recession
Van Tran & Nicol Valdez
International Migration Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article addresses the debate on second-generation advantage and decline among Latinos by providing a post-recession snapshot based on geocoded data from the Current Population Survey (2008-2012). It reports three findings. First, second-generation Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are at a disadvantage, whereas other Latinos have achieved parity with native majority peers. Second, second-generation Latinos report significant progress compared to their parents and there is no evidence of a second-generation decline. Third, there is no difference in outcomes among second-generation Mexicans by immigrant destination type. Overall, these analyses yield an optimistic assessment of second-generation progress, while noting potential stagnation among third- and higher-generation Mexicans.
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Alexis Rosenblum et al.
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to determine whether a labor market penalty exists for members of immigrant groups as a result of being phenotypically different from white Americans. Specifically, the authors examine the link between skin shade, perhaps the most noticeable phenotypical characteristic, and wages for immigrants from five regions: (1) Europe and Central Asia; (2) China, East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific; (3) Latin America and the Caribbean; (4) Sub-Saharan Africa; and (5) the Middle East and North Africa. Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, a nationally representative multi-cohort longitudinal study of new legal immigrants to the United States, the authors find a skin shade penalty in wages for darker immigrants. However, disaggregating by region of origin shows that this finding is driven exclusively by the experience of immigrants from Latin America; the wage penalty for skin tone is substantial for self-reported nonblack Latin American immigrants. The effects of colorism are much less pronounced or nonexistent among other national-origin populations. Furthermore, although a skin shade penalty is not discernible among African immigrants, findings show that African immigrants experience a racial wage penalty.
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Evidence of a 'refugee paradox' for antisocial behavior and violence in the United States
Michael Vaughn et al.
Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, September/October 2015, Pages 624-631
Abstract:
Few, if any, studies have examined antisocial behaviors among refugees especially using population-based samples. As such, it is unresolved whether the 'immigrant paradox' for antisocial behavior extends to include refugees. Employing data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, we assess the lifetime prevalence of antisocial behavior among refugees (n = 428) in contrast with non-refugee immigrants (n = 4955) and native-born Americans (n = 29,267). Additionally, we assess the effect of age of arrival and time spent in the Unites States. Results indicate that refugees were significantly less likely than native-born Americans or non-refugee immigrants to report involvement in any non-violent or violent behavior with the exception of injuring someone such that they had to receive medical attention. We also found no significant relationship between duration as refugee and antisocial behavior. However, persons who spent more than one year as a refugee were significantly more likely to report involvement in violence. Overall, but with some caveats, findings suggest that the immigrant paradox extends to refugees as well.
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Annie Ro & Georgiana Bostean
Social Science & Medicine, November 2015, Pages 39-47
Abstract:
Studies find that longer-term immigrants have higher body mass index (BMI) than their more recently-arrived counterparts. Most interpretations of these health patterns by duration of U.S. residence rely on theories of immigrant integration; they posit that with increasing time in the United States, immigrants incorporate economically, socially, and culturally into aspects of U.S. society, and that these changes impact health. Few studies empirically examine whether these aspects of integration are indeed mediators of the association between duration of U.S. stay and BMI, and if their patterns differ across immigrant subgroups. This study examines data from the National Latino and Asian American Survey, using path analytic methods to simultaneously test six hypothesized mediators between duration and BMI: household income, English language ability, ethnic identity, family cohesion, acculturative stress and discrimination for both Latino and Asian immigrants, stratified by gender. We find little evidence for an association between duration and BMI for either Latino or Asian men. For women, duration and BMI have a significant and positive relationship, although the pathways differ between the two ethnic groups. For Latina women, household income and acculturative stress are significant indirect pathways, although they work in opposing directions. For Asian women, English proficiency and discrimination are significant indirect pathways. Our findings reveal complex pathways between duration and BMI that vary by ethnicity and gender and highlight limitations in the negative acculturation theory, which suggests that exposure to the United States should have a net negative impact on health. In contrast, our findings suggest not all groups show declining health with longer duration, as measured by BMI, and that integration processes do not always translate into health differences in the expected directions. Future research on duration patterns may need to consider alternative explanations beyond incorporation-based processes, such as cross-national health theories or age, period, cohort effects.
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Julien Teitler, Melissa Martinson & Nancy Reichman
International Migration Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
We used data from the 1998-2009 waves of the National Health Interview Survey to investigate cohort differences in low birthweight among US-born children of mothers arriving in the United States between 1955 and 2009, cohort-adjusted patterns in low birthweight by maternal duration of residence in the United States, and cohort-adjusted patterns in low birthweight by maternal duration of US residence stratified by age at arrival and region of origin. We found a consistent deterioration in infant health with successive immigrant cohorts and heterogeneous effects of cohort-adjusted duration in the United States by age at arrival and region. Most notably, we found evidence that maternal health (as proxied by low birthweight) deteriorates with duration in the United States only for immigrant mothers who came to the United States as children. For mothers who arrived as adults, we found no evidence of deterioration. The findings underscore the importance of considering age at arrival and place of origin when studying post-migration health trajectories and provide indirect evidence that early life exposures are a key to understanding why the United States lags other developed nations in health.
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Christopher DeSante & Brittany Perry
American Politics Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous work has shown that context influences the political participation rates of certain minority groups. However, few have tested exactly what drives this relationship. In this article, we assess one possible mechanism: the effect of co-ethnic population size on the acquisition of political knowledge. Our argument is that ethnic context helps condition information acquisition among co-ethnics, which, in turn, affects political engagement. Focusing on Latinos, we show that co-ethnic population size in a county matters and importantly, that as the Latino population increases, political information gaps between citizens and non-citizens decrease considerably. Finally, we show similar results regarding levels of political interest and discuss how both knowledge and interest may condition behavior.