What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA

We develop a model to understand the trade–offs faced by an elected representative in supporting an amnesty when a restrictive immigration policy is in place. We show that an amnesty is more desirable the more restricted are the occupational opportunities of undocumented immigrants and the smaller i...

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Main Authors: Casarico, Alessandra, Facchini, Giovanni, Frattini, Tommaso
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50796/
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author Casarico, Alessandra
Facchini, Giovanni
Frattini, Tommaso
author_facet Casarico, Alessandra
Facchini, Giovanni
Frattini, Tommaso
author_sort Casarico, Alessandra
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We develop a model to understand the trade–offs faced by an elected representative in supporting an amnesty when a restrictive immigration policy is in place. We show that an amnesty is more desirable the more restricted are the occupational opportunities of undocumented immigrants and the smaller is the fiscal leakage to undocumented immigrants via the welfare state. Empirical evidence based on the voting behavior of U.S. Congressmen on the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 provides strong support for the predictions of our theoretical model.
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spelling nottingham-507962019-09-15T04:30:15Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50796/ What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA Casarico, Alessandra Facchini, Giovanni Frattini, Tommaso We develop a model to understand the trade–offs faced by an elected representative in supporting an amnesty when a restrictive immigration policy is in place. We show that an amnesty is more desirable the more restricted are the occupational opportunities of undocumented immigrants and the smaller is the fiscal leakage to undocumented immigrants via the welfare state. Empirical evidence based on the voting behavior of U.S. Congressmen on the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 provides strong support for the predictions of our theoretical model. Elsevier 2018-05-30 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50796/1/RSUE_Rev20_December2017.pdf Casarico, Alessandra, Facchini, Giovanni and Frattini, Tommaso (2018) What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 70 . pp. 258-273. ISSN 0166-0462 Migration policy; Amnesties; Roll call votes https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046217302132 doi:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2018.01.009 doi:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2018.01.009
spellingShingle Migration policy; Amnesties; Roll call votes
Casarico, Alessandra
Facchini, Giovanni
Frattini, Tommaso
What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA
title What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA
title_full What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA
title_fullStr What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA
title_full_unstemmed What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA
title_short What drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from IRCA
title_sort what drives the legalization of immigrants?: evidence from irca
topic Migration policy; Amnesties; Roll call votes
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50796/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50796/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50796/