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

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Migration and immigration issues have come to the forefront as policy reforms around them have been debated globally. The growing economies in the United States and other Western countries as well as many countries in the Middle East and Asia have capitalized on the availability of both skilled and unskilled workers to meet their labor market needs through immigration, asylum seekers, seasonal workers, and students. Across many developing, source countries, this has meant working with specific destination countries on expanding the economic opportunities to their growing youth population and their families for increased income and improved living standards. For the host countries largely dependent on the immigrant labor, however, this has also meant reforming policies to streamline the process of both migration and immigrant integration without a major political backlash.

This goal of this panel is to bring to the fore the many migration and immigration related issues for broader insights into migration and immigrant integration. Three of the four papers included here focus on the experiences of immigrants and their interaction with policy enforcements in the United States. Using data from the IPUMS National Health Interview Surveys, the first paper examines the “morbidity-mortality paradox,” where immigrants are more likely to experience an array of morbidity issues like chronic conditions and disabilities and yet lower rates of mortality when compared to the native-born population, finding that immigrants’ morbidity disadvantages are more than offset by their relative mortality advantages at old age. The second paper’s analysis of the Current Population Survey data to examine the role of internal immigration enforcement on the agricultural labor supply suggests that any unexpected tightening up of the enforcement intensity may have a temporary but costly impact on labor supply decisions among non-citizen farmworkers in the United States. The third paper utilizes administrative data on the employment authorization of asylum seekers in a quasi-random framework, providing a comprehensive picture of the asylum seekers’ labor market and housing outcomes, with various demographic decompositions, in the United States. The fourth paper offers an international perspective, with the analysis of national survey data from Nepal providing an insight into how migration decisions take place for different groups across various destinations, helping to explain who migrates domestically vs. internationally and what its impact in on the magnitude of remittances received.

The diversity of topics around migration and immigration covered in this panel will help the presenters, discussant(s), and conference participants review and exchange ideas focused on theories and empirical understanding on the relevant practical and policy issues here at home and abroad. By bringing diverse researchers together, this panel will elevate the value of this conference by creating a platform for all participants to share their own perspectives and improve the quality policy-focused research.

Policy Area

• Population and Migration Issues

Secondary Policy Area

• Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy

Chair

• Yixin Liu, Baruch College (City University of New York)

Discussant

• Tara Elizabeth Watson, Brookings Institution

Organizer

• Udaya Wagle, Northern Arizona University

Individual Presentations

• Paradox between Immigrant Advantages in Morbidity and Mortality: Dynamic Patterns and Tentative Explanations - Presenting Author: Hui Zheng, University of Toronto

• The Effects of Ongoing Internal Immigration Enforcement on the U.S. Agricultural Labor Supply - Presenting Author: Alejandro Gutierrez-Li, North Carolina State University

• Role of Employment Authorization in Asylum Seekers' Integration - Presenting Author: Jose Bucheli, University of Texas - El Paso

• Labor Migration from Nepal: How Destination Decisions Occur and Impact the Remittances - Presenting Author: Udaya Wagle, Northern Arizona University