University:
Boston University
Course:
CAS PO 502 | Political Analysis
Academic year:

2023
Views:

369

Pages:

1
Author:

Deja Hood

U.S. Immigration Enforcement and Mexican Labor Markets (Job Market Paper) Decades of emigration to the United States have brought economic benefits to migrant- sending regions across Mexico while at the same time increasing their exposure to shocks across the border. In this paper, I study how increased U.S. deportations affect Mexican labor markets using Secure Communities (SC), a policy which expanded local immigration enforcement. I show that in the short run, exposure to SC deportations increases return migration and decreases monthly earnings for individuals with less than a high school degree. SC deportations also increase net outflows within Mexico and emigration to the U.S., a potential mechanism for why earnings mostly rebound after five years. The negative short run effects are not driven by falls in remittance income or increases in crime as SC deportations increase both the share of households receiving remittances and the total amount received and they do not affect homicide rates. The results instead point to increased labor market competition as a result of return migration. Lastly, I show that the negative short run effects of this labor supply shock are larger in localities with less integrated factor markets and worse access to the financial sector. These results motivate taking into account the destination’s level of development when studying the labor market effects of migration flows. Immigration Policy, Crime Reporting, and Victimization: Evidence from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals This paper studies how immigration status affects crime reporting and victimization. I focus on the effects of eligibility for Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a policy that temporarily protects youth from deportation and provides work authorization. I use a differencein-differences design and compare likely undocumented immigrants around the policy’s age eligibility cut-off over time. For victims of crimes, I find that being eligible for DACA increased their likelihood of reporting the crime to the police by 47.4 percentage points (p.p.). I also find that DACA eligibility decreased the victimization rate by 3.7 p.p., driven mostly by a decrease in the incidence of property crimes. This evidence indicates that increased reporting propensities deter victimization. Migration and the Geography of Racism This project sheds new light on the origins of racist institutions and ideologies across the U.S. We investigate how white migration from the postbellum Confederacy changed the trajectory of racial norms elsewhere in the country at a time of westward expansion and frontier settlement. With the upheaval after the Civil War came significant pressure-both economic and cultural-on many white Southerners to seek out new lives elsewhere. For many, the westward-moving frontier provided unique opportunities. Through a novel combination of historical data, we connect these migrants' experiences with slaveholding and Confederate army service to the shortand long-run prevalence of racism outside the South. We provide a unique look at the role of migrants in the early days of law enforcement and criminal justice. Our study provides some of the first evidence of how migration shaped the diffusion of racist norms and practices at a critical juncture of American history.