Do state work eligibility verification laws reduce unauthorized immigration?

Orrenius, Pia M.; Zavodny, Madeline

doi:10.1186/s40176-016-0053-3

Cited by 44 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the U.S., interior enforcement to date has consisted primarily of state-level requirements that some or all employers check the employment eligibility of newly hired workers. Areas that adopted such requirements saw sizable decreases in the number of unauthorized immigrants living there (Bohn, Lofstrom, and Raphael, 2014;Orrenius and Zavodny, 2015a). However, at least some of those unauthorized immigrants may have just moved to other states, not left the country entirely.…”

Section: Border and Interior Enforcementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irregular Immigration in the European Union

Orrenius¹,

Zavodny²

2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Unauthorized immigration is on the rise again in the EU. Although precise estimates are hard to come by, proximity to nations in turmoil and the promise of a better life have drawn hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants to the EU in 2014-2015. Further complicating the ongoing challenge is the confounding flow of humanitarian migrants, who are fleeing not for a job but for their lives. Those who flee for better economic conditions are irregular migrants, not humanitarian migrants, but the lines between the two are often blurred. This policy brief surveys the state of irregular immigration to the EU and draws on lessons from the U.S. experience. It focuses on economic aspects of unauthorized immigration. There are economic benefits to receiving countries as well as to unauthorized migrants themselves, but those benefits require that migrants are able to access the labor market and that prices and wages are flexible. Meanwhile, mitigating fiscal costs requires limiting access to public assistance programs for newcomers. Successfully addressing irregular migration is likely to require considerable coordination and cost-sharing among EU member states. JEL Classification: J15; J31; J61

show abstract

Section: Border and Interior Enforcementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irregular Immigration in the European Union

Orrenius¹,

Zavodny²

2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Very few studies have attempted to tackle this question. Bohn, Lofstrom, and Raphael () find that a large number of undocumented immigrants flowed out of Arizona when the state adopted more stringent immigration laws in 2007, and similarly Orrenius and Zavodny () find that the number of undocumented immigrants declines in states that adopt E‐Verify policies. Wang and Wang () show that Hispanic immigrants are more likely to intermarry with natives in response to tougher immigration enforcement after the September 11 terror attacks (9/11).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tightened Immigration Policies and the Self‐Employment Dynamics of Mexican Immigrants

Wang¹

2019

J Policy Anal Manage

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As the U.S. government has intensified its crackdown on illegal immigration in recent years, an important question to ask is how undocumented immigrants react to the stricter enforcement of immigration laws. This paper seeks to answer whether they increasingly choose self‐employment in an effort to avoid apprehension and subsequent deportation. To guard against endogeneity bias that might stem from increased enforcement in reaction to illegal immigration, the empirical analysis makes use of the September 11 terror attacks (9/11), which inadvertently triggered stricter immigration enforcement nationwide, as a natural experiment. Using a difference‐in‐differences approach and data from the Current Population Survey between 1996 and 2006, this paper examines the changes in the self‐employment choices of male and non‐citizen Mexican immigrants (a proxy for undocumented immigrants) compared to less‐educated Whites (the control group). The findings indicate that male and non‐citizen Mexican immigrants are substantially more likely (40 percent) to enter into self‐employment than less‐educated Whites after 9/11. The analysis further suggests that this finding is not driven by the 2001 recession that coincided with the terror attacks. The increased entries are mainly observed in the group that is most likely to be in the United States illegally and in those who face strong economic incentives. In addition, increased entries are not driven by increased unemployment among Mexican immigrants after the 9/11 event, but, rather, they reflect a change in the behavior of the unemployed Mexican immigrants, perhaps due to changes in perceived risks of detection and deportation.

show abstract

“…These laws aimed primarily to reduce the number of unauthorized immigrants living in a state by making it more difficult for them to work there. Previous research finds that the laws appear to have succeeded in this goal, with the population of likely unauthorized immigrants falling in states that implemented universal E-Verify mandates (Bohn, Lofstrom, and Raphael 2014;Orrenius and Zavodny 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous findings on the labor market effects of state E-Verify laws are mixed. Studies report evidence of positive, negative, and null wage effects among immigrants who are likely to be unauthorized (Amuedo-Dorantes and Bansak 2014; Orrenius and Zavodny 2015). Findings on wage and employment effects among less-educated U.S. natives and naturalized immigrants, who are legally eligible to work but may compete with unauthorized immigrants for jobs, are mixed as well (Amuedo-Dorantes and Bansak 2014; Bohn, Lofstrom, and Raphael 2015;Orrenius and Zavodny 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do State Employment Eligibility Verification Laws Affect Job Turnover?

Orrenius

Zavodny

Gutierrez

2017

Contemporary Economic Policy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

State laws requiring employers to verify workers' employment eligibility may reduce employment and earnings among unauthorized workers and make it difficult for them to switch jobs. Using data from the 2005–2014 Quarterly Workforce Indicators, we find evidence of a reduction in employment and job turnover among Hispanics as a whole in states that require all employers to verify employment eligibility. These adverse effects become larger as the share of likely unauthorized Hispanic workers falls. The drop in job turnover may be due to the laws trapping some Hispanic workers in their jobs. There is little effect on employment or job turnover among non‐Hispanic whites or blacks. There is no effect on average pay for all groups of workers. (JEL J15, J61, J68)

show abstract

Do state work eligibility verification laws reduce unauthorized immigration?

Cited by 44 publications

References 20 publications

Irregular Immigration in the European Union

Irregular Immigration in the European Union

Tightened Immigration Policies and the Self‐Employment Dynamics of Mexican Immigrants

Do State Employment Eligibility Verification Laws Affect Job Turnover?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About