The employment and wages of legalized immigrants

"This article analyzes the employment and wages of recently legalized immigrants [in the United States] using the Legalization Application Processing System (LAPS) file, an administrative file based on the individual records of amnesty applicants, and draws comparisons with a sample of the foreign-born population from the Current Population Surveys of 1983, 1986 and 1988. Compared to the total foreign-born population, the legalized immigrant population differs in four important respects that bear on labor market position: 1) a younger age structure; 2) a less balanced gender composition; 3) a greater representation of Latin Americans; and 4) few years of U.S. residence. LAPS data reveal high rates of labor force participation among legalized immigrants, which exceeded the rates of the foreign-born population by approximately 5 and 17 percent for men and women, respectively."