Keep away
Deciding to Cross: Norms and Economics of Unauthorized Migration
Emily Ryo
American Sociological Review, August 2013, Pages 574-603
Abstract:
Why are there so many unauthorized migrants in the United States? Using unique survey data collected in Mexico through the Mexican Migration Project, I develop and test a new decision-making model of unauthorized labor migration. The new model considers the economic motivations of prospective migrants, as well as their beliefs, attitudes, and social norms regarding U.S. immigration law and legal authorities. My findings show that perceptions of certainty of apprehension and severity of punishment are not significant determinants of the intent to migrate illegally; however, perceptions of availability of Mexican jobs and the dangers of border crossing are significant determinants of these intentions. In addition, individuals' general legal attitudes, morality about violating U.S. immigration law, views about the legitimacy of U.S. authority, and norms about border crossing are significant determinants of the intent to migrate illegally. Perceptions of procedural justice are significantly related to beliefs in the legitimacy of U.S. authority, suggesting that, all else being equal, procedural fairness may produce greater deference to U.S. immigration law. Together, the results show that the decision to migrate illegally cannot be fully understood without considering an individual's underlying values and norms.
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Reshaping the schooling system: The role of immigration
Davide Dottori, Fernanda Estevan & I-Ling Shen
Journal of Economic Theory, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper studies how the schooling system may be impacted by the number and skill type of immigrants. When the number of low-skilled immigrants is large, the education regime tends to become segregated. Wealthy locals are more likely to choose private schools and vote for a lower tax rate to finance public education. In contrast, high-skilled immigrants tend to reinforce the public system. The optimal immigration policy is highly skill-biased. The admission of high-skilled immigrants expedites redistribution toward the less-skilled local households through both a stronger fiscal support for public education and a reduction in the skill wage premium.
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Immigrants Equilibrate Local Labor Markets: Evidence from the Great Recession
Brian Cadena & Brian Kovak
NBER Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
This paper demonstrates that low-skilled Mexican-born immigrants' location choices in the U.S. respond strongly to changes in local labor demand, and that this geographic elasticity helps equalize spatial differences in labor market outcomes for low-skilled native workers, who are much less responsive. We leverage the wage rigidity that occurred during Great Recession to identify the severity of local downturns, and our results confirm the standard finding that high-skilled populations are quite geographically responsive to employment opportunities while low-skilled populations are much less so. However, low-skilled immigrants, primarily those from Mexico, respond even more strongly than high-skilled native-born workers. These results are robust to a wide variety of controls, a pre-recession falsification test, and two instrumental variables strategies. A novel empirical test reveals that natives living in cities with a substantial Mexican-born population are insulated from the effects of local labor demand shocks compared to those in cities with few Mexicans. The reallocation of the Mexican-born workforce among these cities reduced the incidence of local demand shocks on low-skilled natives' employment outcomes by more than 40 percent.
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"Is It Worth Risking Your Life?": Ethnography, Risk and Death on The U.S.-Mexico Border
Seth Holmes
Social Science & Medicine, forthcoming
Abstract:
Every year, several hundred people die attempting to cross the border from Mexico into the United States, most often from dehydration and heat stroke though snake bites and violent assaults are also common. This article utilizes participant observation fieldwork in the borderlands of the US and Mexico to explore the experience of structural vulnerability and bodily health risk along the desert trek into the US. Between 2003 and 2005, the ethnographer recorded interviews and conversations with undocumented immigrants crossing the border, border patrol agents, border activists, borderland residents, and armed civilian vigilantes. In addition, he took part in a border crossing beginning in the Mexican state of Oaxaca and ending in a border patrol jail in Arizona after he and his undocumented Mexican research subjects were apprehended trekking through the borderlands. Field notes and interview transcriptions provide thick ethnographic detail demonstrating the ways in which social, ethnic, and citizenship differences as well as border policies force certain categories of people to put their bodies, health, and lives at risk in order for them and their families to survive. Yet, metaphors of individual choice deflect responsibility from global economic policy and US border policy, subtly blaming migrants for the danger - and sometimes death - they experience. The article concludes with policy changes to make US-Mexico labor migration less deadly.
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Threat by association: Do distant intergroup threats carry-over into local intolerance?
Thijs Bouman, Martijn van Zomeren & Sabine Otten
British Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Individuals are often confronted with intergroup threats, yet many of these threats emanate from distant groups that most individuals are unlikely to encounter in their local environment. An important yet unanswered question is whether reactions to those threats, such as intolerance towards the threatening group, carry over to other groups that individuals actually do encounter in their local environment (e.g., immigrants). The main goal of our studies was to experimentally identify this carry-over effect of intergroup threat. Specifically, we hypothesized that (by definition relatively abstract) symbolic threats (e.g., threats to the ingroup's worldview) have an especially strong carry-over potential because those threats can be easily attributed to other outgroups. We tested these predictions in one correlational and two experimental studies. The results of all three studies confirmed our hypothesis that particularly distant symbolic threats were predictive of intolerance towards local outgroups.
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Assessing the Effect of Social Desirability on Nativism Attitude Responses
Benjamin Knoll
Social Science Research, November 2013, Pages 1587-1598
Abstract:
Attempts to measure and analyze public opinion attitudes toward racial/ethnic minorities often confront the "social desirability" problem: those who have prejudiced attitudes are rarely willing to admit them to surveyors. Instead, they may be more likely to give a socially acceptable answer rather an accurate reflection of their views. Previous research has clearly established that this effect presents a challenge for accurately measuring self-reported racial and policy attitudes that primarily affect African-Americans. It is less clear, however, how it might affect self-reported responses to attitudes dealing with Latinos and immigration. This study thus seeks to analyze the extent to which social desirability may affect survey measures of perceived levels of cultural threat (nativism). Results from two separate analyses using the Crowne-Marlowe "social desirability scale" and a survey "list experiment" demonstrate that social desirability is indeed a concern for accurately measuring nativism in the American public, but that it exerts an opposite effect from what has previously been observed: nativist attitudes tend to be over-reported in opinion surveys.
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The Effect of Immigration on Entrepreneurship
Yaron Zelekha
Kyklos, August 2013, Pages 438-465
Abstract:
This research focuses on the impact of immigration on entrepreneurship. I find clear evidence that immigration has a significant impact on entrepreneurship. The paper makes three important contributions to the research of both immigration and entrepreneurship. First, it proposes unique empirical evidence using a cross-section analysis in which the country's level of immigrants has a significantly positive affect on its level of entrepreneurship. Second, it adds to the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms and environments that characterize positive immigration effects on entrepreneurship. I suggest that country-specific characteristics - in particular urban, open, competitive and culturally diversified (including open minded for ethnic and gender diversity) - influence significantly the positive effect of immigrants on the country's level of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, these positive effects are magnified as the flow of immigrants grows. Third, it uses for the first time in the literature a cross-section data set of 176 countries of immigrants and entrepreneurial activity.
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The Development Impact of a Best Practice Seasonal Worker Policy
John Gibson & David McKenzie
Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Seasonal migration programs are widely used around the world, yet there is little evidence as to their development impacts. A multi-year prospective evaluation of New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) seasonal worker program allows us to measure the impact of participating in this program on households in Tonga and Vanuatu. Using a propensity-score pre-screened difference-in-differences analysis based on surveys fielded before, during, and after participation, we find that the RSE has indeed had positive development impacts, which dwarf those of other popular development interventions. It has increased income, consumption, and savings of households, durable goods ownership, and subjective standard of living; the results also suggest that child schooling improved in Tonga.
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Return migration predictors for undocumented Mexican immigrants living in Dallas
Evelyn Ravuri
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study uses a survey of undocumented Mexican immigrants living in Dallas to identify variables that predict the likelihood of return migration of undocumented Mexican immigrants. Male immigrants and immigrants under age 25 are more likely to intend to return to Mexico. Surprisingly, length of US residence is not a significant predictor of intended return. In contrast, prior immigrant experience is a significant predictor of intent to return to Mexico. Highly educated immigrants are likely to intend to return to Mexico, probably because the relative skill benefit is greater in the origin country. Immigrants from the Mexican state of Guanajuato are likely to intend to return to Mexico, while those from San Luis Potosi are likely to intend to remain in the US. Immigrants who own a home in Dallas are likely to remain in the US, while those who own land in Mexico are likely to return to Mexico.
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Immigration and Political Instability
Tesfaye Gebremedhin & Astghik Mavisakalyan
Kyklos, August 2013, Pages 317-341
Abstract:
Immigration may adversely affect political stability if immigrants are perceived unfavourably by host country populations. Using a large sample of countries this study confirms that a higher immigrant share of a population is associated with decrease in the level of political stability. We further demonstrate that a higher immigrant share leads to increased military spending through the channel of political stability. The negative effect of immigration on political stability appears to be stronger in countries with assimilative citizenship laws. We account for the endogeneity of immigrant share by using an instrument constructed from gravity model estimates.
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Sunmin Lee et al.
Social Science & Medicine, November 2013, Pages 17-23
Abstract:
Previous studies reported mixed findings on the relationship between acculturation and health status among Asian Americans due to different types of acculturation measures used or different Asian subgroups involved in various studies. We aim to fill the gap by applying multiple measures of acculturation in a diverse sample of Asian subgroups. A cross sectional study was conducted among Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese Americans in Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area to examine the association between health status and acculturation using multiple measures including the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation (SL-ASIA) scale, clusters based on responses to SL-ASIA, language preference, length of stay, age at arrival in the United Sates and self-identity. Three clusters (Asian (31%); Bicultural (47%); and American (22%)) were created by using a two-step hierarchical method and Bayesian Information Criterion values. Across all the measures, more acculturated individuals were significantly more likely to report good health than those who were less acculturated after adjusting for covariates. Specifically, those in the American cluster were 3.8 times (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 2.2, 6.6) more likely and those in the Bicultural cluster were 1.7 times more likely (95% CI: 1.1, 2.4) to report good health as compared to those in the Asian cluster. When the conventional standardized SL-ASIA summary score (range:-1.4 to 1.4) was used, a one point increase was associated with 2.2 times greater odds of reporting good health (95% CI: 1.5, 3.2). However, the interpretation may be challenging due to uncertainty surrounding the meaning of a one point increase in SL-ASIA summary score. Among all the measures used, acculturation clusters better approximated the acculturation process and provided us with a more accurate test of the association in the population. Variables included in this measure were more relevant for our study sample and may have worked together to capture the multifaceted acculturation process.
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María Ramos-Olazagasti et al.
Development and Psychopathology, August 2013, Pages 755-771
Abstract:
Research on ethnic-minority youths' mental health has rarely examined developmental trajectories for the same ethnic group in contexts where they are a minority versus where they are the majority or mechanisms accounting for differences in trajectories across such contexts. This study examines Puerto Rican youth residing in two contexts, one in which they are in their home culture of Puerto Rico and one in which they are a minority group, in New York. We explore the relationship among social context, minority status, risk, resilience, and trajectories of internalizing symptoms after adjusting for factors related to migration. We found that youths' reports of internalizing symptoms declined over time. Youths in New York had higher levels of internalizing symptoms than did youths in Puerto Rico, but they had similar trajectories. Differences in internalizing symptoms across the two social contexts were accounted for by experiences of discrimination and exposure to violence. Parental monitoring was associated with fewer internalizing symptoms across the two sites, although this effect diminished over time. Contrary to what was expected, family religiosity was associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms. This association was stronger in New York than in the Puerto Rico site.
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Offending Trajectories Among Native-Born and Foreign-Born Hispanics to Late Middle Age
Wesley Jennings et al.
Sociological Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research on crime over the life-course has made considerable progress in the last several decades. Despite this growth, significantly less attention has been devoted to longitudinal examinations of Hispanic populations beyond one phase of the life-course, and/or examining differences between native-born and foreign-born Hispanics. Recognizing these limitations, this study offers an investigation of Hispanics in the United States focusing on offending and its relationship to immigration status. Using arrest data from a cohort of 375 Hispanic males from ages 18 to 50, trajectory analysis revealed four unique offending trajectories: very low-rate offenders, high-rate late-onset escalators, initially high-rate desisters, and high-rate chronic offenders. Multivariate regression models demonstrated that Hispanic immigrants were significantly less likely to be initially high-rate desisters or high-rate chronic offenders compared with their native-born counterparts, yet unmarried Hispanics were significantly more likely to be high-rate late-onset escalators. Study limitations and implications are also discussed.
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Tomas Jurcik et al.
Journal of Community Psychology, August 2013, Pages 662-678
Abstract:
Ecological factors in psychological acculturation research are often neglected, although recent work suggests that context and acculturation may interact in predicting adaptation outcomes. The ethnic density effect - the protective effect related to a greater proportion of people from the same ethnic group living in a particular neighborhood - might be one such ecological candidate. The current study integrates these constructs by unpacking the perceived ethnic density effect and examining how it is related to acculturation in a diverse sample (N = 146) of immigrant students in Montreal, Canada. It was found that the negative relation between perceived ethnic density and depression was mediated by discrimination but not by social support. Furthermore, a crossover interaction indicated that heritage acculturation was protective against depression for those residing in ethnically concentrated neighborhoods but not for those living in ethnically sparse neighborhoods. This strongly supports an ecology-acculturation fit, highlighting the need to contextualize acculturation research.
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Sara Quandt et al.
American Journal of Public Health, August 2013, Pages e24-e26
Abstract:
Although the health risk to farmworkers of working in hot conditions is recognized, potential for excessive heat exposure in housing affecting rest and recovery has been ignored. We assessed heat index in common and sleeping rooms in 170 North Carolina farmworker camps across a summer and examined associations with time of summer and air conditioning use. We recorded dangerous heat indexes in most rooms, regardless of time or air conditioning. Policies to reduce heat indexes in farmworker housing should be developed.