What drives immigration amnesties?

Arbeitspapier

We develop a general model of legal and illegal immigration to understand the basic tradeoffs faced by a government in the decision to implement an immigration amnesty in the presence of a selective immigration policy. We show that two channels play an important role: an amnesty is more likely the more restricted are the occupational opportunities of undocumented immigrants and the less redistributive is the welfare state. Empirical evidence based on a novel panel dataset of legalizations carried out by a group of OECD countries between 1980-2007 broadly supports the role played by the channels identified in our theoretical model.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 3981

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; International Migration ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
• Subject: illegal immigration ; amnesties ; labor market mismatch ; welfare state ; Illegale Einwanderung ; Straffreiheit ; Migrationspolitik ; Arbeitsmarktflexibilität ; Sozialstaat ; OECD-Staaten

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Casarico, Alessandra ; Facchini, Giovanni ; Frattini, Tommaso
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/66875
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET