Role of Employment Authorization in Asylum Seekers' Integration

• In Event: Policy and Precarity: The Effects of Immigration Enforcement and Legal Status on Migrant Outcomes

Abstract

The growing number of asylum seekers arriving in the United States over the past decade has raised concerns about their economic integration and public finance implications. A key factor in this process is the timely issuance of work authorization, which facilitates entry into the labor market. While most asylum seekers with pending cases qualify for employment authorization, they must actively apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD). Despite the significance of work authorization and the increasing number of applicants, little is known about how the composition of EAD requests has evolved—specifically, variations in application rates by country of origin, entry cohort, and place of residence—and how access to work permits affects economic integration.
This study examines these questions by analyzing EAD application data from 2012 to 2021. First, we conduct descriptive analyses to identify trends in applicant flows and shifts in composition by country of origin, entry mode, geographic distribution, and changes in application rates. We then assess the impact of local EAD approval rates and processing times on asylum seekers’ economic outcomes, including employment rates, earnings, and housing affordability. Finally, we explore how work permit issuance affects the labor market and housing outcomes of other groups, such as naturalized immigrants and natives.
Our analysis relies on two main data sources. First, we use individual-level data from asylum seekers who submitted initial EAD applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) between 2012 and 2021. This dataset includes key details such as residence location, EAD application and approval dates, country of origin, gender, and year of arrival. We use these data to calculate approval rates by immigrant characteristics, location, and year. Second, we merge these approval rates with individual-level data from the American Community Survey (ACS) to explore the impact of EADs on economic integration. For likely asylees, we merge EAD approval rates with data on non-citizens with similar characteristics (gender, country of origin, year of arrival, and county of residence). The merge is conducted at different levels to assess the broader effects on other demographic groups.
To address potential endogeneity in EAD approval rates and local economic conditions, we employ instrumental variable methods using granular EAD processing times as an instrument. The quasi-random assignment of applications to USCIS service centers with varying processing speeds strengthens the exogeneity of this instrument. By exploiting this variation, we identify the impact of work authorization on asylum seekers’ labor market and housing outcomes, as well as broader demographic effects.
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of EAD composition and processing trends and their implications for asylum seekers’ economic integration. By linking EAD metrics with economic indicators, we offer new insights into how access to work permits shapes labor market and housing outcomes, informing policy discussions on improving the efficiency and fairness of the U.S. asylum process.

Author

• Jose Bucheli, University of Texas - El Paso
  Presenting Author