Immigration Enforcement and the Hiring of Low-Skilled Labor
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 111,
May 2021
(pp. 593-97)
Abstract
We examine how firms adjust their labor demand to immigration policy changes resulting from intensified interior immigration enforcement. Using the temporal and geographic variation in the adoption of such policies as a source of identification, we find that firms boost their demand for low-skilled foreign-born labor under the H-2B visa program as enforcement intensifies. Furthermore, firms' increased demand for guest workers is inversely related to natives' employment in occupations where most H-2B workers are hired; however, it does not seem to alter natives' wages or work hours, nor does it seem to redistribute native labor away from those occupations.Citation
Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina, Esther Arenas-Arroyo, and Bernhard Schmidpeter. 2021. "Immigration Enforcement and the Hiring of Low-Skilled Labor." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 111: 593-97. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211115Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- M51 Personnel Economics: Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
- J68 Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: Public Policy
- J61 Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- F22 International Migration