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Access to Higher Public Education and Location Choices of Undocumented Migrants: An Exploratory Analysis

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An Erratum to this article was published on 09 June 2015

Abstract

Many states have experienced a large influx of undocumented migrants in recent years. This phenomenon has created new demands on higher educational systems at the state level. Some states have passed legislation to restrict the access of undocumented migrants to higher public education whereas others provide access in various forms including in-state tuition. Our research examines a related issue that has not been researched much, namely, the impact of educational access on the location decisions of undocumented migrants in the U.S. Undocumented migrants appear to locate in states with high average median real per capita incomes. There is also evidence of clustering of undocumented migrants in states with large migrant networks. The effect of educational access on the percentage of undocumented workers in a state is mixed and small in most specifications, a finding perhaps indicative of a trade-off between competing priorities in the choice of location.

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Notes

  1. “The appearance of Arizona and North Carolina on this list highlights another recent trend. In the past, the foreign-born population, both legal and unauthorized, was highly concentrated. But, since the mid-1990s, the most rapid growth in the immigrant population in general and the unauthorized population in particular has taken place in new settlement areas where the foreign born had previously been a relatively small presence (Passel 2005).”

  2. The Council of Economic Advisors (2005, p. 110) notes “To obtain work, some undocumented immigrants resort to using false documents, such as fake Social Security cards or green cards.”

  3. We do not consider factors such as distance and moving costs in calculating DPV ij as reliable data are largely unavailable in the case of undocumented migrants.

  4. The coefficients of the logged independent variables are interpreted as elasticities.

  5. This can be interpreted as a 1% increase in the total Hispanic population in a state leading to a 0.36% increase in the percentage of illegal immigrants in a state.

  6. This finding, known as the “friends and neighbors effect,” is to be expected (Cebula et al. 1973).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0615, USA

    Usha Nair-Reichert

  2. Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Richard J. Cebula

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  1. Usha Nair-Reichert
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  2. Richard J. Cebula
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Correspondence to Usha Nair-Reichert.

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Nair-Reichert, U., Cebula, R.J. Access to Higher Public Education and Location Choices of Undocumented Migrants: An Exploratory Analysis. Int Adv Econ Res 21, 189–199 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-015-9522-3

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