Economic Consequences of Immigration Policy and Enforcement
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022 3:45 PM - 5:45 PM (EST)
- Chair: Michael Coon, University of Tampa
Put on ICE? The Effects of Immigration Raids in the Animal Slaughtering and Processing Industry
Abstract
Animal slaughtering and processing plants were the target of several high-profile raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the mid-2000s. Unauthorized immigrants, often working under false identities, made up a large share of workers in the industry at the time. Using industry- and individual-level data, we examine how employment, worker turnover, wages and worker characteristics in the industry changed in response to the raids. We use other food processing industries, which tend to have similar workers but were not as targeted by ICE, as a control. Preliminary results indicate that employment was not affected, while average wages fell. The industry appears to have shifted toward hiring refugees in the wake of the raids, although it still employs many workers with characteristics typical of unauthorized workers and was the target of another set of high-profile ICE raids as recently as 2019.“Birthright Granted and Revoked: The Effects of Irish Citizenship Policy on Migrant Characteristics”
Abstract
Prior to 1999, Ireland maintained a jus sanguinis citizenship policy, in which only children with at least one Irish parent could become citizens. However, between 1999 and 2004, Ireland moved to a jus soli policy, in which any children born within Ireland were entitled to citizenship. In mid 2004, Ireland moved back to a jus sanguinis policy, though any children born under the jus soli policy maintained their citizenship. This represents a natural experiment in which we have a treatment group: those immigrating during the jus soli policy and two control groups: those arriving before and after the policy. I utilize these groups to assess the effects of first granting and then removing birthright citizenship on fertility and education. I find that compared to both the pre and post control groups, those immigrants arriving during the birthright citizenship era had both lower fertility rates and higher levels of education. These results suggest that the possibility of having one’s children gain citizenship creates incentives for higher skilled migrants to move to a country. Further, revoking this policy will likely have negative effects on the composition of migrants moving to a country.Parental Deportation, Safe Zone Schools, and the Educational Outcomes of Children Left Behind
Abstract
US immigration authorities deported an estimated 272,000 parents of American children between 2010 and 2013 alone (Cantor 2014). Children of deported immigrants, including 4 million US citizens (Capps, Fix, and Zong 2016), are the unintended victims of intensified immigration enforcement. Parental deportation can have profound and long-lasting consequences for children through family fragmentation, economic hardship, food insecurity, and housing instability. In an effort to address these disadvantages, many schools and school districts are implementing sanctuary or ‘safe-zone’ policies to limit their cooperation with immigration authorities, restrict agents’ access to campuses, and provide resources for students and their immigrant families.We examine how safe-zone policies affect educational outcomes of high-school aged adolescents in mixed-status households using data from a binational survey that collected information on children from mixed-status households who have experienced, or are at risk for, parental deportation. The survey collected information on children’s health, health behavior, household, academics, and socio-ecological health determinants from a year earlier and at the time of parental deportation. We also gather information on the safe-zone status of schools attended by children in the sample.
Using a quasi-natural experimental approach, we exploit the geographic and temporal variation in safe-zone policies to gauge their protective role in children’s academic advancement. In addition, since we have information on the children’s residential history, we gauge the impact of lengthier vs. shorter exposures to those policies and explore heterogeneous impacts according to the child’s age at first exposure to the policy. Finally, although endogeneity concerns stemming from unobserved individual level heterogeneity are addressed by comparing the child’s progression over time, the analysis will address remaining concerns regarding the non-random placement of families in specific school districts.
Discussant(s)
José R. Bucheli
,
New Mexico State University
Michael Coon
,
University of Tampa
Madeline Zavodny
,
University of North Florida
Hisham Foad
,
San Diego State University
JEL Classifications
- J1 - Demographic Economics
- F2 - International Factor Movements and International Business