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Undocumented Immigrants And The Welfare State: The Case Of Regional Migration And U.S. Agricultural Labor

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  • Anita Alves Pena

Abstract

type="main"> A common perception is that immigrants, including illegal immigrants, use disproportionate public aid and select locations based on characteristics of services offered. This paper asks to what extent geographic clustering of undocumented immigrant agricultural laborers in the U.S. is correlated with take-up of public aid broadly defined. Evidence from a nationally representative farmworker survey does not support welfare migration for undocumented immigrants, who have been previously unidentifiable in the literature. The paper, therefore, challenges existing notions of welfare migration by illegal immigrants that have inspired state-level public policy initiatives.

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  • Anita Alves Pena, 2014. "Undocumented Immigrants And The Welfare State: The Case Of Regional Migration And U.S. Agricultural Labor," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 96-113, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:54:y:2014:i:1:p:96-113
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu & Pinto, Santiago M., 2015. "Illegal Immigration and Fiscal Competition," IZA Discussion Papers 9061, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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