Immigration Numbers
H-1B Visas and Wages in Accounting: Evidence from Big 4 Payroll and the Ethics of H-1B Visas
Thomas Bourveau et al.
Journal of Business Ethics, June 2025, Pages 309-330
Abstract:
We use payroll data from a Big 4 accounting firm to examine the starting wage differentials for H-1B visa holders. Prior research in other industries has found mixed results, but primarily relies on surveyed salary data. We observe that relative to U.S. citizen new hires -- matched on office, position, and time of hire -- newly hired accountants with H-1B visas receive starting salaries that are lower by approximately 10%. This finding calls into question the efficacy of regulatory mandates thought to prevent H-1B visa holders from being paid less than U.S. citizens in similar roles. In further tests, we find evidence that the hiring of H-1B visa holders has no or some small positive effect on the wages of peer U.S. citizen new hires (weakly indicative of complementarities or synergies), but no evidence of H-1B hiring driving down the wages for U.S. citizen peer new hires.
Native-Immigrant Entrepreneurial Synergies
Zhao Jin, Amir Kermani & Timothy McQuade
NBER Working Paper, May 2025
Abstract:
We examine the performance of startups co-founded by immigrant and native teams. Leveraging unique data linking startups to founders' and employees' employment and education histories, we find native-migrant teams outperform native-only and migrant-only teams. Native-migrant startups have larger employment three years after founding, are more likely to secure funding, access larger funding rounds, and achieve more successful exits. An instrumental variables strategy based on native shares in university-degree programs confirms native-migrant teams are larger and more likely to receive funding. Superior access to diverse labor pools, successful VCs, and expanded product markets are key factors in driving native-migrant outperformance.
To become a “real” American: Acculturation psychology and Republican Party identification among Asian Americans and Latinos
Jongwoo Jeong
Politics, Groups, and Identities, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior studies of Asian American and Latino party identification tend to focus on Democratic party identification. However, the absence of Democratic party identification and its contributing factors do not fully account for why some Asian Americans and Latinos identify with the Republican Party. Why do some Asian Americans and Latinos turn away from the Democratic Party and choose instead to identify with the Republican Party? I offer a theory of Asian American and Latino party identification that explains both partisanship by focusing on acculturation psychology -- the degree to which minorities want to absorb the rules, norms, and values of a host country, “assimilation psychology,” and maintain those of their country of origin, “multicultural psychology.” Using three nationally representative surveys in the United States, I find that high levels of assimilation (multicultural) psychology are associated with Asian American and Latino support for the Republican (Democratic) Party. This study suggests new insights into how acculturation and the reshaping of subjective in-group identification affect minority incorporation into U.S. politics.
National Conflict and High-Skilled Immigrants’ Workplace Efforts: Evidence from the U.S.–China Conflict
Suzan Sim & A-Sung Hong
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper shows that high-skilled immigrants strategically increase their workplace efforts in response to identity-based career concerns that intensify following national conflicts between their countries of origin and host countries. Leveraging the rapid escalation of the U.S.–China conflict following the 2016 U.S. presidential election in the difference-in-differences framework, we show that Chinese-descent inventors in the United States significantly increased their workplace efforts compared with their Korean- and Japanese-descent counterparts. Consistent with our theory, this effect is more pronounced among Chinese-descent inventors more vulnerable to identity-based career concerns, including midcareer migrants, those with ethnically distinctive first names, corporate inventors more dependent on immigration sponsorship than academic counterparts, and those residing in counties with higher levels of Trump support. Furthermore, using a nationally representative survey, we find that Chinese-descent college-educated workers in the United States reported working significantly more hours than their Korean and Japanese counterparts following the conflict. This study contributes to our understanding of how high-skilled immigrants adjust their workplace efforts in response to geopolitical tensions.
The effects of Maria migrants on the financial health of the residents of Central Florida
Breno Braga & Diana Elliott
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, May 2025
Abstract:
The arrival of climate migrants is expected to pose challenges for many communities in the coming decades. This study examines the financial impact of Puerto Rican migration on residents in receiving communities following Hurricane Maria. While migrants may compete for jobs or reduce access to governmental safety net programs, potentially weakening the financial health of local residents, they could also address labor shortages and boost local consumption, thereby stimulating the economy. Our findings show no evidence that Puerto Rican migration had an adverse effect on residents' credit health outcomes -- such as credit scores and delinquency rates -- even three years post-arrival. In fact, existing homeowners in Hispanic communities in Central Florida experienced improved financial well-being. We present suggestive evidence that these homeowners may have benefited from a modest increase in property values following the influx of migrants.
The Burden of Proof in Immigration Bond Decisions: An Impact Study of Brito v. Barr
Anthony DeMattee et al.
Journal of Law and Courts, forthcoming
Abstract:
Detained individuals subject to deportation have the right to a bond hearing in immigration court similar to that of detained individuals accused of a crime. Unlike criminal law, immigration law places the burden of proof on detained people rather than the government. We analyze the impact of a federal court decision that shifted the burden of proof to the government via a synthetic control study and a qualitative research design grounded in a new theoretical analysis of immigration courts that focuses on judicial decision-making and prosecutorial discretion. The evidence suggests significant limits on the federal courts’ ability to change bond outcomes merely through changing the burden of proof.
Military Service and Immigrants’ Integration: Evidence from the Vietnam Draft Lotteries
Nan Zhang & Melissa Lee
American Political Science Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Seminal theories in political science argue that military service is a critical driver of minority integration. However, a major obstacle bedeviling the study of military service is self-selection: individuals who are better integrated may be more likely to join the military in the first place. We address the selection problem by examining the effects of military conscription during the Vietnam War using an instrumental variables approach. Conscription during 1970–72 was decided on the basis of national draft lotteries that assigned draft numbers based on an individual’s date of birth. Using the draft lottery instrument, we find no evidence of a causal effect of military service on a range of integration outcomes from the 2000 decennial census. At least for the Vietnam era, the link between service and long-term integration is largely driven by self-selection, which points to important scope conditions for the integrationist view.
Measuring global migration flows using online data
Guanghua Chi et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6 May 2025
Abstract:
Existing estimates of human migration are limited in their scope, reliability, and timeliness, prompting the United Nations and the Global Compact on Migration to call for improved data collection. Using privacy protected records from three billion Facebook users, we estimate country-to-country migration flows at monthly granularity for 181 countries, accounting for selection into Facebook usage. Our estimates closely match high-quality measures of migration where available but can be produced nearly worldwide and with less delay than alternative methods. We estimate that 39.1 million people migrated internationally in 2022 (0.63% of the population of the countries in our sample). Migration flows significantly changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, decreasing by 64% before rebounding in 2022 to a pace 24% above the precrisis rate. We also find that migration from Ukraine increased tenfold in the wake of the Russian invasion. To support research and policy interventions, we release these estimates publicly through the Humanitarian Data Exchange.
Uneven Mixing, Network Segregation, and Immigrant Integration
Linda Zhao
American Sociological Review, June 2025, Pages 521-559
Abstract:
Classical theories of immigration posit that widespread intermixing between immigrants and natives is at the crux of immigrant integration, but do not specify what that looks like using network terminology. This study introduces the concept of uneven mixing, which captures variation in the number of intergroup ties that individuals hold in a network, as a strategy for assessing meaningful integration. A low level of uneven mixing represents more widespread intergroup ties, which is analogous to “blurred boundaries” that imply a less rigid sense of “us” versus “them.” In contrast, a high level of uneven mixing occurs when just a few individuals appear to cross over to the other side of otherwise unambiguous group boundaries. Using the case of classroom friendships, I show that native students embedded in more unevenly mixed networks are more closed off to immigrant cultures and view immigrants less favorably, even after accounting for their personal ties to immigrant classmates and the overall number of native–immigrant ties in the classroom. These patterns underscore the importance of considering the structure of intergroup ties when analyzing the relationship between networks and attitudinal integration. While this study focuses on immigrant integration, the approach used here is likely to advance knowledge on any kind of social integration that requires widespread intermixing across groups.
Language proficiency and homeownership: Evidence from U.S. immigrants
Marc-André Luik, Max Friedrich Steinhardt & Simon Voss
Journal of Housing Economics, June 2025
Abstract:
In this paper, we deliver the first causal evidence on the relationship between immigrant host-country language proficiency and homeownership. Using an instrumental variable strategy, we find a substantial positive impact of language skills on the propensity to own a home and the quality of housing among immigrants in the United States. While this effect is mediated by household income, our estimates also speak in favor of a direct language effect. Suggestive evidence further indicates that part of this effect may be driven by discrimination. Our results highlight the importance of host-country-specific human capital and, in particular, language proficiency for socio-economic assimilation in housing markets.