Abstract
This study empirically attempts to identify key factors determining the settlement patterns of undocumented immigrants within the United States. The estimations imply that undocumented immigrants appear to settle in states that border the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico, and states where median family income is higher, average January temperatures are higher, the percent of the state population that is Hispanic is higher, and where economic freedom is higher. On the other hand, undocumented immigrants are less likely to settle in states with a higher cost of living.
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Notes
Indeed, such data are effectively unavailable.
An alternative specification of the measure of undocumented immigration is provided in column (c) of Table 3.
For example, it is estimated that in 2005, undocumented migrants accounted for 30 % of the foreign-born population. For the interested reader, the highest concentrations of undocumented immigrants in 2005 were (and still can be) found in the so-called Texas/Louisiana/Oklahoma “zone,” Florida, New York, Virginia, Colorado, and the so-called Arizona/Utah/Nevada “zone” (Pew Hispanic Center (2013).
See Eq. (4).
Arguably, the 5 % level is considered the minimum acceptable critical value for a variable to be considered statistically significant.
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Cebula, R.J., Duquette, C.M. & Mixon, F.G. Factors Influencing the State-Level Settlement Pattern of the Undocumented Immigrant Population in the United States. Atl Econ J 41, 203–213 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-013-9365-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-013-9365-3