Inequality in the work visa approvals of U.S. immigrants

Thesis (S.M. in Management Research)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2013.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rissing, Ben A. (Ben Arthur)
Other Authors: Emilio J. Castilla.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82269
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author Rissing, Ben A. (Ben Arthur)
author2 Emilio J. Castilla.
author_facet Emilio J. Castilla.
Rissing, Ben A. (Ben Arthur)
author_sort Rissing, Ben A. (Ben Arthur)
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description Thesis (S.M. in Management Research)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2013.
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spelling mit-1721.1/822692019-04-10T23:57:24Z Inequality in the work visa approvals of U.S. immigrants Rissing, Ben A. (Ben Arthur) Emilio J. Castilla. Sloan School of Management. Sloan School of Management. Sloan School of Management. Thesis (S.M. in Management Research)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2013. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-43). This study examines how U.S. immigration policies, as implemented by agents acting on behalf of the federal government, shape migration and key employment outcomes of skilled foreign nationals. Using a unique dataset, which encompasses the entire population of 1,441,856 H-1B temporary work visa requests evaluated by government agents from May 2005 to April 2010, I assess whether agents' visa approval and denial decisions are shaped by immigrants' sending country characteristics. Through this program, government agents mediate a key institutional boundary: access to the U.S. labor market, by conferring or withholding "current" legal standing to potential immigrants. Controlling for important application evaluation criteria, I find that immigrant workers from sending countries with lower levels of economic development are less likely to receive approvals for initial and continuing employment requests, all else equal. Government agents' visa approvals may also shape career mobility among those immigrants previously granted legal standing through the evaluation of requests to change jobs or employers. In these evaluations, however, sending country level of economic development is not a statistically significant predictor of approval. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for theories of inequality and labor market mobility, in addition to practical considerations regarding the efficient and fair administration of immigration policy. by Ben A. Rissing. S.M.in Management Research 2013-11-18T19:02:13Z 2013-11-18T19:02:13Z 2013 2013 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82269 861187636 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 43 p. application/pdf n-us--- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Sloan School of Management.
Rissing, Ben A. (Ben Arthur)
Inequality in the work visa approvals of U.S. immigrants
title Inequality in the work visa approvals of U.S. immigrants
title_full Inequality in the work visa approvals of U.S. immigrants
title_fullStr Inequality in the work visa approvals of U.S. immigrants
title_full_unstemmed Inequality in the work visa approvals of U.S. immigrants
title_short Inequality in the work visa approvals of U.S. immigrants
title_sort inequality in the work visa approvals of u s immigrants
topic Sloan School of Management.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82269
work_keys_str_mv AT rissingbenabenarthur inequalityintheworkvisaapprovalsofusimmigrants