The United States admitted over 18 million legal immigrants since 1965, and additional three million immigrants are believed to reside in the country illegally. These immigrants changed the skill composition of the work force, may be responsible for some of the recent changes in the wage structure observed in the 1980s, have had a profound impact on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of major cities, have set the stage for ethnic skill differentials that will persist well into the next century, and are sure to alter the economic opportunities available to American workers for many decades to come. This project consists of a comprehensive research agenda designed to increase our understanding of the role that immigration and ethnicity play in the U.S. economy. The theme that runs through the research projects is that immigration has both short and long-run effects, and that these effects are better understood if the analysis is based on a solid theoretical foundation. The empirical analysis will use the Public Use Samples of the U.S. Census from 1960 through 1990, the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, and the High School and Beyond survey. The-main questions addressed by the research project are: 1. What factors determine which ethnic groups are most likely to live in segregated neighborhoods--as well as which persons in those ethnic groups are likely to live in those neighborhoods? What are the implications of ethnic residential segregation for economic performance? 2. What is the impact of immigration on native earnings and employment opportunities? 3. To what extent does the internal migration of native workers attenuate the regional wage differentials created by immigration? Are native workers sufficiently mobile so that that immigration has little effect on wage differentials across local labor markets? 4. What factors determine the socioeconomic experiences of immigrant children in the United States? Do observed characteristics explain a sizable part of the differences in academic achievement and work experience between native and immigrant children, as well as among the various immigrant groups? What are the long-run implications of these differences?
