Essays on Immigration and Postsecondary Education

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three papers. In each paper, I use applied econometric methods to study the interaction between immigration policy and the postsecondary policy. The findings offer insights about how immigration policy can influence the education outcomes of undocumented individuals. In my first paper, I explore the effect on postsecondary enrollment through increased transportation access by studying the enactment of a driver’s license law targeting undocumented immigrants in Illinois. Transportation access through driver’s licenses can lower the cost of travel and help overcome the barrier of college distance for undocumented students. Using a difference- in-differences strategy with other Midwest states as a comparison group, I find negative college enrollment effects of the Illinois driver’s license law on undocumented migrants who were not eligible for driver’s licenses before the passage of the law. I show evidence that this decrease in college enrollment was driven by individuals choosing to pursue employment rather than higher education opportunities once given legal access to a driver’s license. In my second paper, my co-author and I use a regression discontinuity strategy to estimate the effect of ineligibility for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on education and labor-market outcomes of undocumented migrants, aged 30 and older, who were the intended cohort of the failed Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Acts (DREAM Acts). I show that likely undocumented migrants who were just age-ineligible for DACA experienced large decreases in their incomes and that DACA ineligibility had no effect on educational outcomes. These findings demonstrate the negative effects on income caused by their exclusion from various proposed or enacted immigration reforms. My third paper studies the effect of in-state resident tuition and state financial aid in the more hostile political environment facing undocumented students in recent years. I do so by analyzing the effect of the Minnesota Dream Act that provided in-state resident tuition and needs-based state financial aid for undocumented students. Using a synthetic control approach, I find suggestive evidence that the Minnesota Dream Act had positive effects on enrollment of up to 30 percentage points.