Full Citation
Title: Opening the Door: Immigrant Legalization and Family Reunification in the United States
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2020
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ISSN:
DOI: 10.3386/w27874
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Abstract: We examine how the legalization programs of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) have affected immigration to the United States since the late 1980s. Our empirical approach exploits variation in IRCA's timing and the magnitude of the legalization shock across metropolitan areas for the one country-Mexico-that dominated the legalized population. We find that "opening the door" to family-sponsored admissions has indeed increased authorized immigration by family members. However, our estimates imply that each IRCA-legalized immigrant has sponsored only one family member for admission over the past three decades. Most induced admissions have also been immediate family, inconsistent with explosive chain migration. Estimates are highly robust and similar in magnitude when we use variation across countries of origin in the magnitude of the legalization shock, irrespective of place of residence within the U.S., or consider survey-based estimates of total immigrant arrivals, rather than admissions alone.
Url: https://www.nber.org/papers/w27874
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Cascio, Elizabeth; Lewis, Ethan
Series Title: NBER Working Papers
Publication Number: 27874
Institution: Dartmouth College
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Migration and Immigration
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