Moving to Opportunity
Immigration enforcement and the institutionalization of elderly Americans
Abdulmohsen Almuhaisen, Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Delia Furtado
Journal of Health Economics, March 2024
Abstract:
This paper examines the relationship between immigration enforcement and institutionalization rates of the elderly. Exploiting the staggered implementation of the Secure Communities (SC) immigration enforcement program across U.S. counties from 2008 through 2014, we show that SC led to a 0.26 percentage points (6.8 percent) increase in the likelihood that Americans aged 65 and above live in an institution. Supportive of supply shocks in the household services market as a central mechanism, we find that the elderly who are most likely to purchase domestic worker services are also the most likely to move into nursing homes following the implementation of SC. Additionally, we find suggestive evidence of significant reductions in the work hours of housekeepers, personal care aides, and home health workers hinting at the critical role of negative supply shocks in occupations that facilitate aging in community.
The Contribution of Immigration to Local Labor Market Adjustment
Michael Amior
Journal of Labor Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
The US faces persistent spatial disparities in joblessness, which should theoretically be eliminated by population reallocation. Can immigration accelerate this adjustment process? I estimate that new immigrants account for 40% of local population adjustment since 1960. This vastly exceeds their share of gross migratory flows (just 10%). I attribute their “excess” response to the pull of migrant enclaves, which are disproportionately located in high-employment areas (a consequence of persistent shocks). However, immigration does not significantly accelerate population adjustment overall, as it crowds out the contribution from internal mobility. This crowd-out can help explain the contemporary decline in gross internal flows.
Differences in Time to Reported First Arrest by Race, National Origin, and Immigrant Generation: A Test of Assimilation Theories
Christopher Inkpen
Crime & Delinquency, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines immigrant assimilation theories by focusing on arrest during adolescence and adult life using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a nationally representative panel study that follows children from adolescence through adulthood. The analysis compares outcomes for the first and second-generation of Mexican origin and other parts of Latin America to third- and fourth-plus generation (1) non-Hispanic white, (2) non-Hispanic black, and (3) Hispanic respondents. This investigation employs survival analyses to account for the timing of arrest and other events (e.g., graduation, childbirth, and employment). Results indicate the first generation, both of Mexican and Other Hispanic origin, are less likely to experience arrest than their higher-generation counterparts, regardless of race/ethnicity of the comparison group.
Community-Based Crime Prevention Programs and Central American Migration: A Difference in Differences Analysis
Laura Iesue
Crime & Delinquency, forthcoming
Abstract:
Community-based crime prevention programs are emerging as a crucial alternative for addressing violence in Central America, a significant driver of migration from the region to the United States. Comprehensive analyses of the impact of the adoption of programs on migration intentions, especially among individuals who have been victims of crime, are lacking. Using a distinctive survey dataset derived from randomized-controlled experiments conducted in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, this study shows that community-based crime prevention programs are associated with an increase in migration intentions in Guatemala but are not linked to migration intentions in El Salvador and Honduras. This finding holds even when considering whether these programs address neighborhood factors and perceived risk of future victimization. Further examination of these programs is warranted.
Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric and ICE Reporting Interest: Evidence from a Large-Scale Study of Web Search Data
Masha Krupenkin, Shawndra Hill & David Rothschild
British Journal of Political Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper studies whether media cues can motivate interest in reporting suspected unauthorized immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Using web search data and automated content analysis of cable news transcripts, we examine the role of media coverage on searches for how to report immigrants to ICE and searches about immigrant crime and welfare dependency. We find significant and persistent increases in news segments on crime by after Trump's inauguration, accompanied by a sharp increase in searches for how to report immigrants. We find a strong association between daily reporting searches and immigration and crime coverage. Using searches during broadcasts of presidential speeches, we isolate the specific effect of anti-immigrant media coverage on searches for how to report immigrants to ICE. The findings indicate that the media's choices regarding the coverage of immigrants can have a strong impact on the public's interest in behaviour that directly harms immigrants.
Stop, in the Name of COVID! Using Social Media Data to Estimate the Effects of COVID-19-Related Travel Restrictions on Migration
Jordan Klein, Ingmar Weber & Emilio Zagheni
Demography, April 2024, Pages 493-511
Abstract:
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Organization for Migration has postulated that international migrant stocks fell short of their pre-pandemic projections by nearly 2 million as a result of travel restrictions. However, this decline is not testable with migration data from traditional sources. Key migration stakeholders have called for using data from alternative sources, including social media, to fill these gaps. Building on previous work using social media data to analyze migration responses to external shocks, we test the hypothesis that COVID-related travel restrictions reduced migrant stock relative to expected migration without such restrictions using estimates of migrants drawn from Facebook's advertising platform and dynamic panel models. We focus on four key origin countries in North and West Africa (Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Morocco, and Senegal) and on their 23 key destination countries. Between February and June 2020, we estimate that a destination country implementing a month-long total entry ban on arrivals from Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Morocco, or Senegal might have expected a 3.39% reduction in migrant stock from the restricted country compared with the counterfactual in which no travel restrictions were implemented. However, when broader societal disruptions of the pandemic are accounted for, we estimate that countries implementing travel restrictions might paradoxically have expected an increase in migrant stock. In this context, travel restrictions do not appear to have effectively curbed migration and could have resulted in outcomes opposite their intended effects.
Global Palette: The Impact of Immigrant Talent on Multinational Product Strategy
Dany Bahar, Natalie Carlson & Exequiel Hernandez
University of Pennsylvania Working Paper, December 2023
Abstract:
We examine how human capital at an MNC’s headquarters affects its foreign product expansion choices. We theorize that immigrant workers hired at HQ are channels of country-specific knowledge and connections that facilitate three types of product-related decisions in their home country markets: launching new products, updating existing products, and adapting products to local conditions. Drawing on two remarkably fine-grained datasets, we examine 74,906 product launches by 340 US-based multinationals in the consumer packaged goods industry in 83 foreign markets during 2009-2019, matched to 7,876 skilled immigrant hires (on H-1B visas) by these firms over the same time period. The more immigrants from a given country a firm hires in the US, the more its subsequent products in that country exhibit locally-specific features. Hiring immigrants also leads to more frequent updates of preexisting products, especially in culturally distant markets relative to the US. Immigrants also help firms launch more new products in geographically distant countries after they are hired. These associations are stronger for more culturally-specific products (i.e., food and beverages vs. household and personal care) and hold only when immigrants occupy product-related roles (e.g., R&D, marketing, management) but not when they have non-product-related roles (e.g. accounting). Our study provides granular insights on the role of human capital across critical phases of global product strategy: new product development, local adaptation capability, and ongoing product management.
Immigrant selectivity at school entry
Yader Lanuza
Sociological Forum, March 2024, Pages 48-65
Abstract:
Immigrant educational selectivity -- immigrant parents' educational attainment relative to their peers who did not migrate -- is associated with better schooling outcomes for children at later stages of the educational pipeline in the United States. Less is known, however, about its influence on early education-related outcomes. Using Early Childhood Longitudinal Study data from three different cohorts and quantitative analyses, I examine the relationship between immigrant selectivity and school readiness at school entry (proxied through math skills and approaches to learning evaluations). I find that immigrant selectivity is positively associated with school readiness, but it does not generate a widespread immigrant advantage at school entry, contrary to findings related to schooling outcomes later in the schooling pipeline. Notably, among most Asian groups, immigrant selectivity partly accounts for school readiness advantages compared to their White peers with native-born parentage, whenever they emerge. By contrast, accounting for immigrant selectivity reveals the full extent of the immigrant disadvantage at school entry among most Latino groups. These results suggest that immigrant selectivity is an important factor in shaping racial/ethnic stratification early in the schooling pipeline.