Immigrant selectivity: The roles of household structure and U.S. immigration policy.

Abstract

Previous studies of immigrant self-selection have been characterized by two assumptions: first, that the U.S. has an open door immigration policy and second, that only individuals make emigration decisions. These assumptions are tenuous at best. Immigration policy has historically been concerned with one over-riding question--how to select those individuals to be allowed to immigrate. The answer has been a policy which clearly has made it easier for individuals of certain nationalities, occupations, and family ties to enter the United States. The assumption that only individuals make emigration decisions is equally misguided. Household immigration is a nontrivial component of overall immigration. Many individuals who migrated as children may not have explicitly made any migration decision. Their arrival in the U.S. is the result of parental decisions made on their behalf. This thesis incorporates U.S. immigration policy constraints into a model of household migration. Relaxing these restrictions has important theoretical implications for the characteristics of immigrants in the United States. In particular, both the magnitude and direction of immigrant selectivity depend on household structure, prevailing U.S. immigration policy, relative economic and social conditions--in general the context of the migration decision. Furthermore, self-selection can take place even when immigrants are "passive" and not explicitly part of the migration decision. Unfortunately current data limitations make it impossible to directly test the theoretical model by explicitly controlling for the selectivity generated by the endogenous migration decision. Instead, home country characteristics, household status, and prevailing U.S. immigration policy have been included in the market wage equation to approximate the effect of immigrant selectivity. Although having little impact on the labor force participation decision, home country characteristics and U.S. immigration policy are significant in explaining variation in the wages of married foreign-born women.