Linear regression coefficients for labor market outcomes on legal status

Log of occupational education score Log of hourly wages
Baseline model Full model Baseline model Full model
b SE b SE b SE b SE
Legal status
 Unauthorized (reference)
 Temporary worker (1=yes) -.119***c -0.034 -.135***d -0.032 -.061c -0.072 .014b -0.061
 Legal permanent resident (1=yes) 0.011 -0.032 0.002 -0.03 .187*** -0.043 .121*** -0.033
Human capital
 Years of education .015*** -0.003 .009* -0.004
 Age at most recent U.S. trip 0.004 -0.005 -0.001 -0.007
 Centered age-squared -0.00002 -0.00007 -0.00004 -0.00008
 No. of prior U.S. trips -.007* -0.003 .010*** -0.003
 Duration of U.S. trip (in months) 0.0002 -0.001 .004*** -0.0003
 No English (1=yes) -.222*** -0.031 -.167** -0.056
 Limited English  (1=yes) -.180*** -0.029 -.135* -0.055
 Strong English (reference)
Social capital
 Close family w/ U.S. exp. (1=yes) -0.006 -0.025 -0.021 -0.027
 Ext. family w/ U.S. exp. (1=yes) -0.034 -0.061 -0.063 -0.048
 Close family living in U.S. (1=yes) -0.0002 -0.026 .054** -0.017
 Ext. family living in U.S. (1=yes) 0.004 -0.051 .109* -0.044
 Joined U.S. social org.(s) (1=yes) 0.018 -0.028 0.01 -0.034
 Job obtained by referral (1=yes) 0.001 -0.022 -0.001 -0.041
U.S. trip controls
 Interviewed in the U.S. (1=yes) 0.052 -0.031 .143*** -0.031
Work-related controls
 Worked in a border state (1=yes) -0.01  (.026) -0.027 -0.032
 Professional/Skilled job (reference)
 Service/Sales/Office job (1=yes) -.122** -0.036
 Unskilled manual job (1=yes) -0.048 -0.038
 Agricultural job (1=yes) -.172*** -0.034
Intercept -1.365** -0.043 -1.367*** -0.173 2.490*** -0.082 2.377*** -0.268
Adjusted R2 0.104 0.196 0.063 0.38
N 3,273 3,273  2,608 2,608

* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001
a Models are weighted and standard errors adjusted for 143 Mexican community clusters; all models include dummy variables for year of U.S. trip (1987–2011)
b Indicates temporary workers’ statistically significant difference from legal permanent residents (p <.10).
c Indicates temporary workers’ statistically significant difference from legal permanent residents (p <.01).
d Indicates temporary workers’ statistically significant difference from legal permanent residents (p <.001).

Source: Mexican Migration Project 143; sample was limited to non-U.S. citizen, male heads of households who worked during their most recent trip to the United States when above the age of 16, from 1987 to 2011.

View the underlying data on epi.org.