The Impact of Legal Status on Immigrants’ Earnings and HumanCapital: Evidence from the IRCA 1986

This paper analyzes the impact of IRCA 1986, a U.S. amnesty, on immigrants’human capital development and labor market outcomes. Because of IRCA, the 1975-1981 arrivals were all legalized by 1990. However, many of the 1982-1986 arrivalsremained illegal. Using the California Latino immigrants in Census 1990, I find that the1975-81 arrivals on average outperform the 1982-86 arrivals in men’s wage, women’slabor force participation rate, and English-speaking ability. This finding is not a generaltrend of labor market conditions, because the analysis using refugees and U.S.-bornLatinos, which are two comparison groups without legal status issue, indicate nodifference in outcomes between pre-1982 and post-1982 cohorts....