In this paper we show that highly skilled undocumented migrants are more likely to return home than migrants with low or no skills when illegality causes skill wasteʺ, i.e. when illegality reduces the rate of return of individual capabilities (i.e. skills and human capital) in both the labor...

Since 1986 the United States has made considerable efforts to curb illegal immigration. This has resulted in an increase in migration costs for undocumented immigrants. More stringent border enforcement either deters potential illegal immigrants from coming to the U.S., or moves the point of...

Two issues have taken center stage in the recent debates about U.S. immigration policy: one, illegal immigration and more generally the entrance of poorly educated individuals into the U.S. economy and two, whether the U.S. should continue its family-based admissions system or move towards a...