Three essays on migration

Abstract

This dissertation studies three different aspects of migration decisions. Using U.S. and Mexican survey data, the first essay investigates the effects of the different labor market and demographic characteristics on the decision to migrate as documented or undocumented immigrants to the U.S. We find documented, and undocumented immigrants are different in terms of their skills. Mexican individuals with 5-9 years of education have the highest probability of migrating as an undocumented immigrant. My second essay studies the effects of increased border protection and domestic surveillance on low-skilled documented and undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central American Countries. The results suggest that increased border protection reduces undocumented immigration and increases documented immigration, but the total number of low-skilled immigrants falls. Undocumented immigrants have job creation effects on native workers, and therefore reduced undocumented immigration reduces native wages and employment. One common finding of my first two essays is that increased border control reduces the number of immigrants from the origin countries. My third essay tests the hypothesis that internal migrants in the U.S. have different risk preferences than non-migrants. We do not find any significant differences in risk preferences between these two groups.