IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp8406.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Should the U.S. Continue Its Family-Friendly Immigration Policy?

Author

Listed:
  • Duleep, Harriet

    (College of William and Mary)

  • Regets, Mark

    (National Foundation for American Policy)

Abstract

An ongoing debate is whether the U.S. should continue its family-based admission system, which favors visas for family members of U.S. citizens and residents, or adopt a more skills-based system, replacing family visas with employment-based visas. In many ways this is a false dichotomy: family-friendly policies attract highly-skilled immigrants regardless of their own visa path, and there are not strong reasons why a loosening of restrictions on employment migrants need be accompanied by new restrictions on family-based immigration. Moreover, it is misleading to think that only employment-based immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy. Recent immigrants, who have mostly entered via kinship ties, are economically productive, a fact hidden by a flawed methodology that underlies most economic analyses of immigrant economic assimilation.

Suggested Citation

  • Duleep, Harriet & Regets, Mark, 2014. "Should the U.S. Continue Its Family-Friendly Immigration Policy?," IZA Discussion Papers 8406, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8406
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp8406.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Magnus Lofstrom, 2002. "Labor market assimilation and the self-employment decision of immigrant entrepreneurs," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(1), pages 83-114.
    2. Card, David & Freeman, Richard B. (ed.), 1993. "Small Differences That Matter," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226092836, Febrero.
    3. Darren Lubotsky, 2007. "Chutes or Ladders? A Longitudinal Analysis of Immigrant Earnings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 820-867, October.
    4. William Fellner, 1979. "Contemporary Economic Problems, 1979," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 918293, September.
    5. Charles M. Beach & Alan G. Green & Christopher Worswick, 2007. "Impacts of the Point System and Immigration Policy Levers on Skill Characteristics of Canadian Immigrants," Research in Labor Economics, in: Immigration, pages 349-401, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Matthew Hall & George Farkas, 2008. "Does human capital raise earnings for immigrants in the low-skill labor market?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(3), pages 619-639, August.
    7. David Card & Richard B. Freeman, 1993. "Small Differences That Matter: Labor Markets and Income Maintenance in Canada and the United States," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number card93-1, March.
    8. Wei-Yin Hu, 2000. "Immigrant Earnings Assimilation: Estimates from Longitudinal Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 368-372, May.
    9. Monica Boyd, 1976. "Immigration policies and trends: A comparison of Canada and the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 13(1), pages 83-104, February.
    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. Ameed Saabneh & Rebbeca Tesfai, 2021. "Does Immigrant Selection Policy Matter? Labor Market Integration of Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel and the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 955-985, October.
    2. Anelli, Massimo & Shih, Kevin Y. & Williams, Kevin, 2017. "Foreign Peer Effects and STEM Major Choice," IZA Discussion Papers 10743, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Marina Gindelsky, 2019. "Testing the acculturation of the 1.5 generation in the United States: Is there a “critical” age of migration?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 31-65, March.

    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. Duleep, Harriet & Liu, Xingfei & Regets, Mark, 2021. "How the Earnings Growth of U.S. Immigrants Was Underestimated," GLO Discussion Paper Series 820, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Harriet Duleep & Xingfei Liu & Mark Regets, 2022. "How the earnings growth of US immigrants was underestimated," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(2), pages 381-407, April.
    3. Duleep, Harriet, 2013. "U.S. Immigration Policy at a Crossroads," IZA Discussion Papers 7136, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Garnett Picot & Patrizio Piraino, 2013. "Immigrant earnings growth: selection bias or real progress?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1510-1536, November.
    5. Brian Duncan & Stephen Trejo, 2009. "Immigration and the U.S. Labor Market," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0908, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    6. Philip Oreopoulos, 2011. "Why Do Skilled Immigrants Struggle in the Labor Market? A Field Experiment with Thirteen Thousand Resumes," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 148-171, November.
    7. Harriet Orcutt Duleep, 2013. "U.S. Immigration Policy at a Crossroads," Working Papers 130, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    8. Neeraj Kaushal & Yao Lu & Nicole Denier & Julia Shu-Huah Wang & Stephen J. Trejo, 2016. "Immigrant employment and earnings growth in Canada and the USA: evidence from longitudinal data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1249-1277, October.
    9. Harriet Duleep & Daniel Dowhan, 2002. "Insights from longitudinal data on the earnings growth of U.S. foreign-born men," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(3), pages 485-506, August.
    10. Antecol, Heather & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Trejo, Stephen, 2002. "Human Capital and Earnings of Female Immigrants to Australia, Canada, and the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 575, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Matti Sarvimaki & Kari Hamalainen, 2010. "Assimilating Immigrants: The Impact of an Integration Program," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1019, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    12. Robert W. Fairlie & Julie Zissimopoulos & Harry Krashinsky, 2010. "The International Asian Business Success Story? A Comparison of Chinese, Indian and Other Asian Businesses in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom," NBER Chapters, in: International Differences in Entrepreneurship, pages 179-208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Robert W. Fairlie & Harry Krashinsky & Julie Zissimopoulos & Krishna B. Kumar, 2012. "Indian Entrepreneurial Success in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom," Research in Labor Economics, in: Research in Labor Economics, pages 285-318, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    14. Michael Beenstock & Barry Chiswick & Ari Paltiel, 2010. "Testing the immigrant assimilation hypothesis with longitudinal data," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 7-27, March.
    15. Duleep, Harriet & Liu, Xingfei & Regets, Mark, 2018. "Country of Origin, Earnings Convergence, and Human Capital Investment: A New Method for the Analysis of U.S. Immigrant Economic Assimilation," GLO Discussion Paper Series 247, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Heather Antecol & Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Stephen J. Trejo, 2003. "Immigration Policy and the Skills of Immigrants to Australia, Canada, and the United States," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(1).
    17. Irena Kogan, 2015. "The role of immigration policies for immigrants’ selection and economic success," ImPRovE Working Papers 15/05, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    18. Randall Akee & Maggie R. Jones, 2019. "Immigrants’ Earnings Growth and Return Migration from the U.S.: Examining their Determinants using Linked Survey and Administrative Data," NBER Working Papers 25639, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Attanasio, Orazio & Davis, Steven J, 1996. "Relative Wage Movements and the Distribution of Consumption," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1227-1262, December.
    20. Longva, Pal, 2001. "Out-migration of immigrants : implications for assimilation analysis," Memorandum 04/2001, Oslo University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigration; human capital; admissions policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

    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:dp8406. 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.