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Did Employer Sanctions Lose Their Bite? Labor Market Effects of Immigrant Legalization

Author

Listed:
  • Lofstrom, Magnus

    (Public Policy Institute of California)

  • Hill, Laura E.

    (Public Policy Institute of California)

  • Hayes, Joseph

    (Public Policy Institute of California)

Abstract

Taking advantage of the ability to identify immigrants who were unauthorized to work prior to obtaining Legal Permanent Resident status, we use the New Immigrant Survey to examine whether lacking legal status to work in the U.S. constrains employment outcomes of illegal immigrants. With the exception of high-skilled unauthorized immigrants, the data fail to reveal evidence of improved employment outcomes attributable to legal status. In light of evidence that unauthorized immigrants experienced increased wages as a result of receiving amnesty through the 1986 Immigration and Reform Control Act during the 1990s, we interpret the results as evidence of ineffective employer sanctions.

Suggested Citation

  • Lofstrom, Magnus & Hill, Laura E. & Hayes, Joseph, 2010. "Did Employer Sanctions Lose Their Bite? Labor Market Effects of Immigrant Legalization," IZA Discussion Papers 4972, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4972
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mukhopadhyay, Sankar, 2018. "Comparing Wage Gains from Different Immigrant Legalization Programs," IZA Discussion Papers 11525, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Sampaio, Breno Ramos & Sampaio, Gustavo Ramos & Sampaio, Yony, 2012. "On Estimating The Effects of Legalization: Do Agricultural Workers Really Benefit?," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126858, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Quinn Steigleder & Chad Sparber, 2017. "The effect of legal status on immigrant wages and occupational skills," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 80-84, January.
    4. Sankar Mukhopadhyay, 2019. "Legal status and immigrants’ educational investment decisions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-29, March.
    5. Wen Ci & Feng Hou & René Morissette, 2018. "Acquisition of permanent residence by temporary foreign workers in Canada: a panel study of labour market outcomes before and after the status transition," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    legalization; unauthorized; illegal; undocumented; immigration; amnesty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J8 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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