The Economic Effects of Providing Legal Status to DREAMers

Abstract

This study quantifies the economic effects of two major immigration policies aimed at legalizing undocumented individuals that entered the United States as children and completed high school: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the DREAM Act. The former offers only temporary legal status to eligible individuals, whereas the latter provides a track to legal permanent residence. Our analysis is based on a general equilibrium model that allows for shifts in participation between work, college, and non-employment. The model is calibrated to account for productivity differences across workers of different skills and documentation status, and a rich pattern of complementarities across different types of workers. We estimate that DACA increased gross domestic product (GDP) by almost 0.02% (about $3.5 billion), or $7,454 per legalized worker. Passing the DREAM Act would increase GDP by around 0.08% (or $15.2 billion), which amounts to an average of $15,371 for each legalized worker. The larger effects of the DREAM Act stem from the expected larger take-up and the increased incentive to attend college among DREAMers with a high school degree. We also find substantial wage increases for individuals obtaining legal status, particularly those that increase their educational attainment. Because of the small size of the DREAMer population, and their skill distribution, legalization entails negligible effects on the wages of US-born workers. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

The Academic Performance of Undocumented Students in Higher Education in the United States

“…For most undocumented youth, graduation marks a pivotal transition from the protected status that K-to-12 schooling affords them to a harsher reality in the workplace where lack of work authorization presents large barriers to upward mobility (Gonzales 2011; Gleeson and Gonzales 2012). A small minority — about one-quarter — pursue post-secondary schooling (Ortega, Edwards, and Hsin 2018). Debate is ongoing regarding whether legal status continues to exert an outsized effect on educational outcomes once undocumented youth enter college (Abrego 2006; Gonzales 2011; Terriquez 2014) or whether legal status interacts with other characteristics such as race and socioeconomic status to shape college outcomes (Enriquez 2017; Valdez and Golash-Boza 2018).…”

“…But there are also reasons to believe that the selected group of undocumented youth who overcome challenges to attend college may be more likely to persist and graduate with a degree. Because undocumented youth cannot legally work, they earn lower wages and are employed in jobs that subject them to more occupational hazards, compared to legal immigrant workers (Donato et al 2008; Hall, Greenman, and Farkas 2010; Ortega, Edwards, and Hsin 2018). This reality means the wages undocumented youth forgo to attend college are lower than the wages their legal-status peers forgo.…”

Mexican immigrant health advantage in metabolic syndrome? Examining the contributions of demographic, socioeconomic, and health behavior characteristics

“…In a recent session of Congress the House approved the American Dream and Progress Act of 2019 before it stalled in the Senate, which would have offered young immigrants permanent legal status (H.R.6) ( Roybal-Allard, 2019 ). The passage of this more expansive legislation would be expected to have a significant impact on reducing barriers to educational attainment for young immigrants ( Francesc et al, 2019 ). Our findings suggest that policy solutions are needed to address socioeconomic inequality and support immigrant health, and a variety of recent legislative efforts have been aligned with this goal; what is needed now is the political will to pass them.…”

In-State Tuition Policies and the College Decisions of Undocumented Students: Evidence from Colorado

“…Prior work has used national survey data to examine the enrollment effects of similar policies extending in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants. In general, these studies find positive effects on college enrollment and completion, particularly for women (Kaushal, 2008;Flores, 2010;Darolia and Potochnick, 2015), but no effect on the probability of dropping out (Chin and Juhn, 2011) or evidence for the crowding out of native students (Amuedo-Dorantes and Sparber, 2014; Ortega, Edwards and Hsin, 2018). In-state tuition may also lead undocumented students to enroll sooner after high school (Darolia and Potochnick, 2015).…”