IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp6546.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Impact of the 1996 US Immigration Policy Reform (IIRIRA) on Mexican Migrants' Remittances

Author

Listed:
  • Vaira-Lucero, Matias

    (Macquarie University, Sydney)

  • Nahm, Daehoon

    (Macquarie University, Sydney)

  • Tani, Massimiliano

    (University of New South Wales)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of the US Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) on the remitting patterns of Mexican immigrants. Using data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP128), we find that a significant effect on remittance flows from illegal migrants took place after the implementation of the IIRIRA. This is consistent with the hypothesis that illegal immigrants are risk-averse agents who transfer more money to their home country as a mechanism to insure themselves against higher degrees of uncertainty within their host countries. Furthermore, this finding confirms previous research that conditions and policies in the host country affect migrants' remitting behaviour, and migrants' motivations are not only altruistic but also self-interested. Given that migrants' remittances and their savings are important sources of capital formation in many sending countries and of savings in the countries that host them, a better understanding of the effect that migration policies have on remittance flows can lead to more informed policies that can transcend the home security aspects that often dominate discussions about illegal migration.

Suggested Citation

  • Vaira-Lucero, Matias & Nahm, Daehoon & Tani, Massimiliano, 2012. "The Impact of the 1996 US Immigration Policy Reform (IIRIRA) on Mexican Migrants' Remittances," IZA Discussion Papers 6546, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6546
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp6546.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Mazzolari, Francesca, 2010. "Remittances to Latin America from migrants in the United States: Assessing the impact of amnesty programs," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 323-335, March.
    2. Francisco L. Rivera-Batiz, 1999. "Undocumented workers in the labor market: An analysis of the earnings of legal and illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 91-116.
    3. repec:zbw:rwidps:0032 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. El-Sakka, M. I. T. & McNabb, Robert, 1999. "The Macroeconomic Determinants of Emigrant Remittances," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1493-1502, August.
    5. M. Piracha & Y. Zhu, 2012. "Precautionary savings by natives and immigrants in Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(21), pages 2767-2776, July.
    6. Ben Jann, 2008. "A Stata implementation of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition," ETH Zurich Sociology Working Papers 5, ETH Zurich, Chair of Sociology, revised 14 May 2008.
    7. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Cynthia Bansak, 2006. "Money Transfers among Banked and Unbanked Mexican Immigrants," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(2), pages 374-401, October.
    8. Mathias Sinning, 2011. "Determinants of savings and remittances: empirical evidence from immigrants to Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 45-67, March.
    9. Dustmann, Christian, 1997. "Return migration, uncertainty and precautionary savings," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 295-316, April.
    10. Agarwal, Reena & Horowitz, Andrew W., 2002. "Are International Remittances Altruism or Insurance? Evidence from Guyana Using Multiple-Migrant Households," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2033-2044, November.
    11. Dustmann, Christian & Kirchkamp, Oliver, 2002. "The optimal migration duration and activity choice after re-migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 351-372, April.
    12. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Susan Pozo, 2006. "Remittances as insurance: evidence from Mexican immigrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 227-254, June.
    13. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Susan Pozo, 2002. "Precautionary Saving by Young Immigrants and Young Natives," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(1), pages 48-71, July.
    14. Thomas Bauer & Mathias Sinning, 2010. "Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition for Tobit models," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(12), pages 1569-1575.
    15. Lucas, Robert E B & Stark, Oded, 1985. "Motivations to Remit: Evidence from Botswana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(5), pages 901-918, October.
    16. Faini, Riccardo, 1994. "Workers Remittances and the Real Exchange Rate: A Quantitative Framework," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 235-245.
    17. Osili, Una Okonkwo, 2007. "Remittances and savings from international migration: Theory and evidence using a matched sample," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 446-465, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rosa Weber & Douglas S. Massey, 2023. "Assessing the Effect of Increased Deportations on Mexican Migrants’ Remittances and Savings Brought Home," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(2), pages 1-27, April.
    2. Michael Clemens and Timothy N. Ogden, 2014. "Migration as a Strategy for Household Finance: A Research Agenda on Remittances, Payments, and Development- Working Paper 354," Working Papers 354, Center for Global Development.
    3. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Thitima Puttitanun, 2014. "Remittances and immigration enforcement," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-26, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthieu Delpierre & Bertrand Verheyden, 2014. "Remittances, savings and return migration under uncertainty," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-43, December.
    2. Katarzyna Budnik, 2011. "Temporary migration in theories of international mobility of labour," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 42(6), pages 7-48.
    3. Dustmann, Christian & Mestres, Josep, 2010. "Remittances and temporary migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 62-70, May.
    4. Kaczmarczyk, Pawel, 2013. "Money for Nothing? Ukrainian Immigrants in Poland and their Remitting Behaviors," IZA Discussion Papers 7666, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Giulia Bettin, 2012. "The remittance behaviour of African diaspora in Belgium," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 157-157.
    6. Christian Dustmann & Joseph-Simon Görlach, 2016. "The Economics of Temporary Migrations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 98-136, March.
    7. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti, 2016. "Steady streams and sudden bursts: persistence patterns in remittance decisions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 263-292, January.
    8. Giulia Bettin & Andrea F. Presbitero & Nikola L. Spatafora, 2017. "Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 1-23.
    9. Bettin, Giulia & Lucchetti, Riccardo & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2012. "Endogeneity and sample selection in a model for remittances," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 370-384.
    10. Cooray Arusha & Mallick Debdulal, 2013. "International business cycles and remittance flows," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-33, September.
    11. Diego Alberto Sandoval Herrera & María Fernanda Reyes Roa, 2012. "¿Por qué los migrantes envían remesas?: Repaso de las principales motivaciones microeconómicas," Borradores de Economia 10036, Banco de la Republica.
    12. Garcia, Pablo M & Rodriguez-Montemayor, Eduardo, 2010. "A primer of international migration: The Latin American experience and a proposal for a research agenda," MPRA Paper 24147, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5559 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Mathias Sinning, 2007. "Wealth and Asset Holdings of Immigrants in Germany," Ruhr Economic Papers 0030, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Thomas Bauer & Mathias Sinning, 2011. "The savings behavior of temporary and permanent migrants in Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 421-449, April.
    16. Mduduzi Biyase & Fiona Tregenna, 2016. "Determinants of remittances in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 176, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    17. Bettin, Giulia & Lucchetti, Riccardo & Pigini, Claudia, 2018. "A dynamic double hurdle model for remittances: evidence from Germany," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 365-377.
    18. Matloob Piracha & Stephane Mahuteau & Massimiliano Tani, 2010. "Selection Policy and Immigrants’ Remittance Behaviour," Studies in Economics 1003, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    19. Kazi Abdul, Mannan, 2017. "Motivations for Remittances: A Study of Rural Bangladesh Migrants in Italy," MPRA Paper 97945, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2017.
    20. Moussir, Charaf-Eddine & Tabit, Safaa, 2016. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Migrants’ Remittances: Evidence from a Panel of Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 72956, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2016.
    21. Adams, Richard H., Jr., 2008. "The demographic, economic and financial determinants of international remittances in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4583, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    remittances; legal status; uncertainty; policy reform; illegal migrants; Mexico; migration policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6546. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.