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Immigrants and Hispanics Facing Hardships

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 5, 2018 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM

Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Meeting Room 404
Hosted By: American Society of Hispanic Economists
  • Chair: Luisa Blanco, Pepperdine University

The Differential Incidence and Severity of Food Insecurity by Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Groups Over the Great Recession in the United States

Alfonso Flores-Lagunes
,
Syracuse University
Hugo Jales
,
Syracuse University
Judith Liu
,
Syracuse University
Norbert Wilson
,
Tufts University

Abstract

Perennially, Hispanic- and black-headed households have substantially higher rates of food insecurity (19.1% and 21.5% in 2015, respectively) than the national average (12.5% in 2015), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We document the evolution of both the incidence and severity of food insecurity by race/ethnicity and immigrant status over the Great Recession. We define as incidence the traditional binary measure employed in the literature, while intensity is based on the continuous measure available from the survey questions in the food security supplement. We conduct a decomposition analysis to assess the contribution of different factors to the observed differences in food insecurity across these demographic groups over the years before, during, and after the Great Recession. Our analysis results in the following findings. First, we find that during the Great Recession, the inequality in food insecurity incidence between Hispanics and whites and immigrants and nonimmigrants increased, but the inequality between blacks and whites fell. Second, the decomposition of the mean differences in incidence on food insecurity shows that both the composition and structural effects contribute to Hispanic-white and black-white differentials, while the composition effect explains most of the mean gaps between immigrants and nonimmigrants. Third, when analyzing the measure of food insecurity severity, the mean group differentials offer new insights. Contrary to the mean differences in incidence, the mean differences in severity are insignificant between Hispanics and whites, and immigrants face significantly lower food insecurity severity than nonimmigrants. In contrast, blacks observe higher severity exposure to food insecurity relative to whites, in line with their results for food insecurity incidence. Overall, our findings suggest that the degree of this exposure and the contribution of observable and unobservable factors in the decomposition are heterogeneous across these demographic groups. They also highlight the importance of looking at both the extensive (incidence) and intensive (severity) margins of food insecurity. These results allow a better understanding of the exposure to food insecurity in the U.S. by relevant subgroups, potentially aiding policy-makers target policies (e.g., SNAP) more effectively to ameliorate food insecurity incidence and severity and, ultimately, social and economic inequality.

Using Eye Tracking to Study Migrant Remittances

Angelino Viceisza
,
Spelman College
Eduardo Nakasone
,
Michigan State University
Maximo Torero
,
World Bank

Abstract

It is well documented that migrant remittances are a significant driver of global development and serve as a pillar of economic stability (e.g. The World Bank 2015, Yang 2011). In fact, it is estimated that remittance flows to developing countries will reach US$ 479 billion in 2017 – a number that far exceeds official development assistance. Nonetheless, sending remittances remains costly. The World Bank estimates that, as of 2014, the global average cost of sending US$ 200 held steady at 8 percent of the transaction value. In some instances, transfer fees may surpass 20 percent, leaving quite some money on the table. The creation of publicly available comparison databases containing detailed information on the costs, speed, and reliability of sending remittances has been identified as one of the most efficient means to achieve the above aims. At the same time, this requires such services to be simple and accessible. This study will partner with RemitRight (www.remitright.com, RR), which has built and maintains the first World Bank-certified metasearch web and mobile platform for online money transfers from the US to top remittance-receiving countries, to test behavioral foundations and relevant attributes of comparison-shopping using a range of field experiments. One of the study’s main intellectual merits lies in the fact that it uses non-choice (neuro) data in the form of eye tracking (and facial expression) to unpack “the black box” of experimentally elicited choice data in the form of migrant remittance decisions. In so doing, the study sheds light on (1) how neuroeconomic data can be used in field contexts to identify relevant attributes of choice and (2) the resulting welfare effects that could accrue to migrants and recipients from comparison-shopping and increased transparency.

Split Families and the Future of Children: Immigration Enforcement and Foster Care Placements

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes
,
San Diego State University
Esther Arenas-Arroyo
,
Queen Mary University of London

Abstract

Intensified immigration enforcement, particularly at the local and state level, has been responsible for roughly 1.8 million deportations between 2009 and 2013 alone (Vaughan 2013). Deportations have broken up households and changed the structure of many families headed by an unauthorized parent –typically through the deportation of fathers (Capps et al. 2016). In some instances, the children enter the foster care system when their parents (or single parent) are detained by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the children are left alone. In this regard, at least 5,100 children were in the foster care system and could not be reunited with their parents due to a parents’ detention or deportation. This figure is estimated to increase strongly over the next years (Wessler 2011). Aside from the fact that, on average, it costs state and federal governments approximately $26,000/year to foster a child, foster care children have worse and fewer labor market opportunities (Doyle 2007), and are far more likely to commit crimes (Doyle 2008). Given these facts, our aim is to assess how the escalation of immigration enforcement taking place at the local and state levels since the early 2000s has contributed to the growing number of caseloads of Hispanic youth in foster care, especially in areas with a greater concentration of likely undocumented immigrants. To that end, we combine national data on state-level foster care placements from the 2001-2015 Adoption and Foster Case Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) Foster Care files, with detailed information on the intensification of immigration enforcement at the state level. In order to gauge if intensified enforcement has contributed to the share of Hispanic children in foster care, we exploit the temporal and geographic variation in interior immigration policies using a quasi-experimental differences-in-differences approach.

Do Hispanic Veterans Work Through Their Disabilities?

David van der Goes
,
University of New Mexico
Richard Santos
,
University of New Mexico

Abstract

According to the US Census Bureau, nearly 19 million veterans (17.2 million men and 1.6 million women) resided in the US in 2015. Hispanics represented 6.4 percent of our nation’s veterans. Among our nation’s veterans, the number who served our country during the Gulf War (August 1990 to the present) reached nearly 6 million. The number of veterans with a service connected disability rating approached 4 million veterans in 2015. Among these disabled veterans, about 1.2 million had a service connected disability of 70 percent or higher. A service connected disability is one that was a result of a disease or injury incurred or aggravated during active military service. Severity of one’s disability is scaled from 0 to 100 percent, and compensation eligibility depends on the disability rating percent. In this paper, attention is given to the employment and experiences of disabled Hispanics and other veterans with a service connected disability who served during the Gulf War era. Using the American Community Survey, we exploit the relatively large sample of veterans and relatively objective disability rating system of the Veterans Health Administration to examine the relationship between disability and four labor market outcomes: 1) labor force participation 2) unemployment 3) earnings and 4) total income. We find that Hispanics are relatively insensitive to disability when it comes to earnings, income, and unemployment. They are similarly sensitive in terms of labor force participation.
Discussant(s)
Anita Alves Pena
,
Colorado State University
David Mckenzie
,
World Bank
Susan Pozo
,
Western Michigan University
Linda Bilmes
,
Harvard University
JEL Classifications
  • J0 - General
  • I0 - General