Publications
Immigrant Ethnic Enclaves: Causes and Consequences. 2024. In Migration and Forced Displacement: Vulnerability and Resilience, Vol. 1 (Samson Maekele Tsegay, ed.). With Tao Song.
Working Papers
Uncertain Futures: How Did the Threat of Rescinding DACA Affect Eligible Immigrants’ Outcomes? (Job Market Paper)
Since its introduction in 2012, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been one of the most contested U.S. immigration policies. This article examines how the uncertainty arising from the 2017 attempted rescission of the policy impacted the labor market outcomes of eligible immigrants. Using American Community Survey data, I implement a difference-in-differences research design that exploits the sharp eligibility cutoffs of the policy to define treatment and comparison groups. I find that the threat to end the program had statistically significant negative effects on eligible immigrants' employment, labor force participation, and total income. I further investigate how state-level support for DACA recipients mitigated these effects and explore heterogeneity by sex, age, and education. My results are robust across a range of different specifications, samples, and undocumented proxies, and pass placebo tests. My paper demonstrates that the outcomes of DACA-eligible workers respond to legislative uncertainty, strengthening the argument for a more permanent legal structure.
Comparing the Effects of Temporary Versus Permanent Amnesty Policies on Immigrants' Outcomes
Immigration policies generally either follow a full amnesty or a temporary authorization framework. Despite key legal differences between the two approaches, it is unclear if their short- and long-run effects on eligible immigrants' labor market outcomes also differ, as the number of studies comparing their relative impacts is limited. This paper uses Census data to present one of the first direct comparisons of the two policy tools, exploiting the virtually simultaneous implementations of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nicaraguan and Salvadoran immigrants during the 1990s. While my results demonstrate that both policy tools increase eligible immigrants' labor force participation, employment, and income comparably in the short run, I find evidence suggesting that only the effects of NACARA persist in the long run. My main results are supported by a number of robustness checks and extensions, including a detailed analysis of the long-run effects of each policy on a range of quality of life indicators.
Works in Progress
The Effects of Immigration Enforcement on Immigrant Workers' Commuting Behavior
Young Immigrants’ Post-Secondary Education Attainment: The Role of Enclaves. With Tao Song.
The Effects of Immigration Enforcement in Ethnic Enclaves. With Tao Song.