IMPACTS OF MIGRATION Labor Market Implications of Scale, Innovation, and

This paper addresses what is known about the impacts of immigrants onthe U.S. economy, with special focus on Mexican immigrants. Tostimulate critical thinking about whether Mexican migration warrants special policy consideration, it is necessary to first identify what is unique or distinctive about U.S.-bound Mexican migration. This a fair question because historically U.S. immigration policy has considered national origins in setting admission guidelines. Sometimes administrative policies for immigrants from different countries have been used to reinforce controversial international policies, as in the case of immigrants and asylum seekers from Central America during the 1980s, when refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala were systematically turned away, while refugees from Nicaragua were welcomed (see Teitelbaum and Weiner, 1995). The different treatment of unauthorized migrants from Haiti and Cuba during the 1990s offer another stark example of the intersection of foreign policy and immigration policy. Our discussion of U.S. immigration begins by recognizing that migrant characteristics differ according to source regions and countries, and that these characteristics directly influence migrants ’ integration prospects and labor market