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Understanding the Role of Immigrants’ Legal Status: Evidence from Policy Experiments

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  • Francesco Fasani
Abstract
Programmes aimed at reducing the presence of unauthorized immigrants are often at the core of the migration policy debate in host countries. In recent years, a growing body of empirical literature has attempted to understand the effect of lacking legal status on immigrants’ outcomes and behaviour. The main difficulties in this field are the scarcity of data and the identification challenge posed by endogenous selection into legal status. The vast majority of these articles have therefore used amnesty programmes (or similar policy changes) to establish causal relationships. In this article, we propose a first systematic review of the empirical literature for the USA and Europe on the impact of legal status on different immigrants’ outcomes. We then present some new evidence of the relationship between labour market outcomes and legal status in the Italian context. In our empirical analysis, we first provide some descriptive evidence on differences in the outcomes for groups with different residence statuses, and we then exploit a specific amnesty programme to produce causal estimates of the impact of legal status. Our results confirm previous findings in the literature and show that the design of the specific amnesty analysed matters in shaping its effects. (JEL codes: F22, J61, K37).

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Fasani, 2015. "Understanding the Role of Immigrants’ Legal Status: Evidence from Policy Experiments," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 61(3-4), pages 722-763.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cesifo:v:61:y:2015:i:3-4:p:722-763.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cesifo/ifv006
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Ivana Fellini & Raffaele Guetto, 2019. "Legal Status and Immigrants’ Labour Market Outcomes: Comparative Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in Western and Southern Europe," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2019_11, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    2. Effrosyni Adamopoulou & Ezgi Kaya, 2020. "Not just a work permit: EU citizenship and the consumption behaviour of documented and undocumented immigrants," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(4), pages 1552-1598, November.
    3. Fabio Méndez & Facundo Sepúlveda & Nieves Valdés, 2016. "Legalization and human capital accumulation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 721-756, July.
    4. Eric Schuss, 2020. "Substantial Labor Market Effects of the Residency Status," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 993-1026, December.
    5. Sergei Guriev & Biagio Speciale & Michele Tuccio, 2019. "How do Regulated and Unregulated Labor Markets Respond to Shocks? Evidence from Immigrants During the Great Recession," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 37-76.
    6. Claudio Deiana & Ludovica Giua & Roberto Nisticò, "undated". "Legalization and Long-Term Outcomes of Immigrant Workers," Development Working Papers 480, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    7. Sankar Mukhopadhyay, 2019. "Legal status and immigrants’ educational investment decisions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-29, March.
    8. Elisa Barbiano di Belgiojoso & Livia Elisa Ortensi, 2022. "Who Wants to Become Italian? A Study of Interest in Naturalisation among Foreign Migrants in Italy," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(5), pages 1095-1118, December.
    9. Massimiliano Ferraresi, 2022. "The regional (re)allocation of migrants during the Great Lockdown in Italy," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 403-426, July.
    10. Claire E. Altman & Colleen M. Heflin & Chaegyung Jun & James D. Bachmeier, 2021. "Material Hardship Among Immigrants in the United States: Variation by Citizenship, Legal Status, and Origin in the 1996–2008 SIPP," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(3), pages 363-399, June.
    11. Francesco Fasani, 2018. "Immigrant crime and legal status: evidence from repeated amnesty programs," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 887-914.
    12. Claudio Deiana & Ludovica Giua & Roberto Nisticò, 2021. "Getting Off on the Wrong Foot: The Long-Term Effects of Missing a Large-Scale Amnesty for Immigrant Workers," CSEF Working Papers 625, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    13. Timilsina, Laxman, 2023. "Immigration policy shocks and infant health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    14. Sherrie A. Kossoudji, 2016. "What are the consequences of regularizing undocumented immigrants?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 296-296, September.
    15. Altangerel, Khulan, 2019. "Essays on immigration policy," Other publications TiSEM 954c6300-249e-496c-8cef-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Cris Beauchemin & Marine Haddad & Mamady Cisse & Christelle Nagnonhou & Lucas Ondicolberry & Andreas Priambodo, 2024. "Politique d’immigration, statut légal et fécondité des migrantes : le cas de Mayotte," Working Papers 297, French Institute for Demographic Studies.
    17. Eric Schuss, 2017. "Substantial Labor Market Effects of the Residency Status: How Important Are Initial Conditions at Arrival for Immigrants?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 952, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. Selda Dudu, 2018. "International Migration to Seville," Border Crossing, Transnational Press London, UK, vol. 8(2), pages 355-378, July-Dece.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • K37 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Immigration Law

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