Newly-Legalized Mexican Men"
BY: SHERRIE A. KOSSOUDJI
University of Michigan
DEBORAH COBB-CLARK
Australian National University
Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=166541
Date: January 1999
Contact: DEBORAH COBB-CLARK
Email: Mailto:dcclark at coombs.anu.edu.au
Postal: Australian National University
Economics Program, Research School of Social Sciences
Canberra, ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61 2 6249 3267
Fax: +61 2 6249 0182
Co-Auth: SHERRIE A. KOSSOUDJI
Email: Mailto:kossoudj at umich.edu
Postal: University of Michigan
2788 School of Social Work Building
1080 S. University Ave.
701 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
ABSTRACT:
We examine the occupational concentration and mobility of a
group of unauthorized Mexican men who received amnesty under
IRCA to shed light on the role of legal status in the
assimilation process. Initially these men are concentrated in a
small number of traditional migrant jobs. Although their
occupational mobility rate is high, it partly represents
churning through these same occupations. When we consider the
direction--either upward or downward--of occupational change, we
find that English language ability and the characteristics of
the occupation, itself, are strongly correlated with mobility
before legalization. After legalization, few characteristics
surpass in importance the common experience of having received
amnesty.
JEL Classification: J61, J62, J24