Illegal Aliens: Their Employment and Employers.

166 Pages·2007·1.96 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 296 133 CE 050 417
Chiswick, Barry R.
AUTHOR
TITLE
Illegal Aliens: Their Employment and Employers.
Upjohn (W.E.) Inst. for Employment Research,
INSTITUTION
Kalamazoo, Mich.
REPORT NO
ISBN-0-88099-058-9
PUB DATE
88
NOTE
166p.
AVAILABLE FROM W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 300
South Westnedge AVenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49007.
PUB TYPE
Reports - Research/Technical (143)
MFO1 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS.
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DESCRIPTORS
Employer Employee Relationship; *Employment Patterns;
*Employment Problems; Individual Characteristics;
*Labor Market; *Occupational Mobility; On the Job
Training; *Salary Wage Differentials; *Undocumented
Inmigrants; Work Environment
IDENTIFIERS
Illinois (Chicago)
ABSTRACT
A study examined various characteristics of the
employment of illegal aliens, including wages, job training, job
mobility, workplace conditions, and employer characteristics. The
study was largely based on data transcribed from a sample of
Immigration and Naturalization Service apprehension reports on
illegal aliens in the Chicago (Illinois) metropolitan area and an
extensive interview of businesses in the Chicago metropolitan area
(half of which were identified by illegal aliens, with the other half
being randomly selected). Data on the labor market behavior of nearly
300 male illegal aliens apprehended in the Chicago metropolitan area
indicated that the average alien was 30.6 years old, had been in the
United States an average of 3.4 years, and received $4.52 per hour
(in 1983) as opposed to $4.42 received by Mexican nationals and $4.73
received by other nationals. Only 16 percent (mostly in restaurant
and service jobs) reported wages below the federal minimum level.
Businesses employing illegal aliens were more likely to exhibit
seasonal employment patterns and provided significantly less
on-the-job training than did their counterparts that did not employ
illegal aliens. The illegal aliens studied tended to exhibit
considerable job mobility, with Mexican illegal aliens exhibiting
stronger ethnic enclave patterns of employment than did the other
ethnic groups. (Twenty-five tables are included.) (MN)
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ILLEGAL
ALIENS
Their
Employment
and
Employers
Barry R. Chiswick
University of Illinois at Chicago
1988
WE UPJOHN INSTITUTE for Employment Research
Library of Congress Catalogir4-in-Publication Data
Chiswick, Barry R.
Illegal aliens : their employment and employers / Barry R.
Chiswick.
p.
cm.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-88099-059-7.
ISBN 0-88099-058-9 (pbk.)
1. Miens, IllegalEmploymentUnited States.
I. W.E. Upjohn
Institute for Employment Research.
II. Title.
HD8081.A5C473
1988
331.6'2 '0973dc 19
88-10062
CIP
Copyright © 1988
by the
W. E. UPJOHN INSTITUTE
FOR EMPLOYMENT RESEARCH
300 South Westnedge Ave.
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007
THE INSTITUTE, a nonprofit research organization, was established on July
1, 1945. It is an activity of the W. E. Upjohn Unemployment Trustee Corpora-
tion, whit~ was fo.ned in 1932 to administer a fund set aside by the late
Dr. W. E. Upjohn for the purpose of carrying on "research into the causes
and effects of unemployment and measures for the alleviation of unemployment."
The facts presented in this study and the observations and viewpoints express-
ed are the sole responsibility of the author. They do not necessarily represent
positions of the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
I i
Carmel la
ill
AUTHOR
Barry R. Chiswick has been research professor in
the Department of
Economics and the Survey Research Laboratory
at the University of Illinois
at Chicago (UIC) since 1978. He received his Ph.D. in
Economics from
Columbia University, has held appointments
at U.C.L.A., Columbia Univer-
sity, Stanford University and the University of Chicago,
and was a senior staff
economist on the Council of Economic Advisers. He is
currently head of the
Department of Economics at UIC.
Professor Chiswick's primary research interests have
focused on labor
markets, and in particular, on the determinants of the
skills workers bring to
labor markets and the returns these skills receive. For
the past decade, ths
interest has been applied to studies of immigrants
and racial and ethnic
minorities.
He has published numerous articles in the major
professional journals. His
books include Income Inequality. Human Resource and
Income Distribution,
The Gateway: U.S. Immigration Issues and
Policies, and The Dilemma of
American Immigration.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For the "concept" of a survey of the employers of illegal aliens to evolve
into this book, three ingredients were required from others: encouragement,
financial support, and human resources.
I am especially appreciative of the confidence shown in the project by Ellen
Sehgal, then of the Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor. Our many discussions about the survey methodology were in-
valuable. The financial support provided by the Employment and Training Ad-
ministration for the pilot survey made it possible to deroons:rate the feasibili-
ty of the methodology.
The support for the project exhibited by Michael Teitelbaum, project of-
ficer, and Albert Rees, president of the Sloan Foundation, was most helpful.
The Sloan Foundation's grant provided the resources for conducting the survey,
as well as for the preliminary data analysis. Additional resources for data
analysis and preliminary drafts were provided by the Hoover Institution, Stan-
ford University, and the Center for the Study of the Economy and the State,
University of Chicago. The W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
made possible the preparation and publication of this book.
A special word of thanks is due to A.D. Moyer, district director, and the
staff of the Chicago District Office of the Immigration and Naturalization Ser-
vice for their cooperation and access to their files. A large debt is owed to
the establishment, which shall remain anonymous, that participated in the
survey.
All of the stages of the survey, from designing the sample to the prepara-
tion of the data tape for analysis, were done in conjunction with my colleagues
at the Survey Research Laboratory, University of Illinois. Francis Fullam (pilot
survey), Johnny Blair (sampling), Elizabetl, Fastrnan (project coordinator),
Diane Binson (project coordinator and data reduction coordinator), and Mary
Hirt (project assistant) played major roles in the development and implemen-
tation of the survey. Karen Corrigan developed the interviewer instruction
material and supervised the carefully selected interviewers who showed the
skeptics that employers would participate in a survey on a potentially sensitive
topic. Research assistance from Robert Wood and Gabriel Martinez greatly
facilitated the data analysis.
The Social Science Data Archive of the University of Illinois at Chicago
has generously agreed to make the data fi!e, available to other users.
v
Various aspects of the survey methodology and the analysis have been
presented in workshops and conferences. These include workshops
at Har-
vard University, the University of California, San Diego, the University of
Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the annual meetings
of the American Economic Association, American Statistical Association,
Population Association of America, Midwest Economics Association and the
Association for Public Opinion Research. Comments on the preliminary drafts
from Gary S. Becker, Cannel U. Chiswick, Evelyn Lehrer, Paul W. Miller,
Ellen Sehgal and Alfred Tel la have been very helpful in increasing the rigcr
of the analysis and the clarity of the presentation.
In spite of the invaluable assistance from many quarters, I accept
respon-
sibility for any errors of omission or commision in the survey and the analysis.
CONTENTS
Introduction
I
1
I. The Background
1
6
II. The Survey
III. Chapter Outline
8
9
Notes
Immigration Policy and Illegal Aliens
11
2
I. Who Are the Illegal Aliens?
11
20
II. Current Immigration Law
III.
Incentives for Illegal Migration
29
34
Notes
37
The Survey
3
38
I. Survey Research on Illegal Aliens
40
II. The Survey Methodology
III. Evaluation of the Survey Methodology
45
56
IV. Summary and Conclusions
58
Nctcs
Illegal Alien Labor Market Behavior
61
4
62
Descriptive Statistics
I.
67
II. Analysis of Wages
90
III. Employer Characteristics
IV. EAploitation of Megal Aliens
98
V. Summary
102
104
Notes
5 The Employers of Illegal Aliens
107
I. Some Descriptive Statistics
109
H. Differences Between Illegal Alien Employers
and Other Employers
113
III. The Underground Economy
123
IV. On-the-Job Training
126
V. Perceptions of Legal Hiring Requirements
129
VI. Summary
132
134
Notes
vii
D
6 The Labor Market and Public Policy
139
1. The Setting
139
II. Survey Methodology
140
HI. The Illegal Alien Labor Market
141
IV. The Impact of the Immigration Reform
and Control Act
145
Notes
147
Bibliography
149
Exhibit
Rccord of Deportable Alien (1-213) Form
I
153
Exhibit 2
-)pes of Questions in Employer Survey
155
Index
157
TABLES
2 -I
Deportable A'iens Located by Status at Entry
and Nationality, 1984 Fiscal Year
14
2-2
Selected Measures of Economic Well-Being,
U.S., Canada, Mexico
16
2-3
Estimated Number and Characteristics of Illegal Aliens
Enumerated in the 1980 Census for the U.S. and Illinois
21
2-4 Summary of the Immigration Law Under the '985
Amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act
and Subsequent Amendments
23
2-5
1.mmigrants Admitted to the U.S by Class of Admission, 1984
25
2-6 Immigrants Born in Mexico Admitted
to the U.S. by Category, 1984
27
3-'
Final Dispostion of Sample of Establishments
48
3-2 rnal Dispostion of Initial Refusals by Whether Reworked
and by Method of Interview
51
3-3
Item Nonreponse Rates for Completed Interviews for
Questions with High Nonresponse Rates
53
3-4 Mean and Standard Deviation of Length of Interview
in Minutes, by Industry and Sample
56
viii
10