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Immigration Policy and the Rise of Self-Employment among Mexican Immigrants

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  • Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes
  • Magnus Lofstrom
  • Chunbei Wang

Abstract

The recent dramatic growth in self-employment among Mexican immigrants in the United States in the past two decades is a puzzling trend, in stark contrast to the stagnant growth or even decline among other demographic groups. The authors propose that the expansion of interior immigration enforcement, a characteristic of the US immigration policy during that time span, contributed to this unique trend by pushing Mexican immigrants into self-employment as an alternative livelihood. Exploiting temporal and geographic variation in immigration enforcement measures from 2005 to 2017, the authors show that tougher enforcement has been responsible for approximately 15% of the rise in Mexican self-employment in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Magnus Lofstrom & Chunbei Wang, 2022. "Immigration Policy and the Rise of Self-Employment among Mexican Immigrants," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 75(5), pages 1189-1214, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:75:y:2022:i:5:p:1189-1214
    DOI: 10.1177/00197939211057765
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    state and local immigration enforcement; undocumented immigrants; Mexican immigrants; self-employment; United States;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • K37 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Immigration Law

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