In 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) to reduce the incentives for unauthorized migration by eliminating U.S. employment opportunities for unauthorized workers. The General Legalization Program within IRCA granted amnesty to approximately 1.7 million long-term...

We examine the occupational concentration and mobility of a group of unauthorized Mexican men who received amnesty under IRCA to shed light on the role of legal status in the assimilation process. Initially these men are concentrated in a small number of traditional migrant jobs. Although their...