The Effects of Transition to Durable Legal Status on Immigrant Families

Immigration is a multi-generational process that is increasingly shaped by legal status. There is consistent evidence that less-permanent migrants fare less well relative to those who are more secure in their U.S. residence. But, to date, we do not know whether this is because of unobservable differences (e.g., in motivation or social networks) associated with both permanent residence and material wellbeing. Economist Breno Braga and political scientist Hamutal Bernstein will use recently available and under-explored restricted access data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PISD) to examine how transitions to legalized permanent residence (LPR) status and naturalized citizenship affect adult and children’s outcomes. They will look at families observed between 1997 and 2023 to study the differential effect between a parent’s adjustment to LPR status, versus naturalization, on their children’s wellbeing over time. For parents, they will focus on two primary labor market outcomes: whether a parent is employed in a full-time job and their hourly earnings. Children’s outcomes of interest include poverty status, school enrollment and grade retention, as well as health and behavioral health status and behavioral health outcomes.