Outcomes by visa category for immigrant workers in The United States

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2297035 (Table of contents)

This paper tries to understand the skil l differentials of immigrants in the U.S. whose year of immigration is between 1972 and 2000 by using multiple micro level data sets . W e mainly focus on multiple effects which determines skill and age levels of immigrants, namely country and visa compositi on effect. Our results indicate that the skill differentials between employment and visa categories is related to selectivity of employment visa category rather than the differences in regional compositions. After establishing th is fact we examin e whether this selection yields beneficial labor market outcomes for immigrants. It is empirically shown that employment visa holders perform much better for all six labor market outcomes which are earned income, wage income, employment status, labor force particip ation status, poverty status, and English ability