The demography of legalization: insights from administrative records of legalized aliens.

The characteristics of recently legalized U.S. immigrants are compared with a sample of the foreign-born population taken from the Current Population Surveys of 1983 1986 and 1988. Data for the newer immigrants are from the Legalization Application Processing System file an administrative file based on records of amnesty applicants. "Following a brief profile of the demographic characteristics of the legalized population we compare the employment status occupational profiles and wage rates of legalized immigrants by region of origin gender and period of arrival. A decomposition of wage gaps between documented and undocumented migrants is buttressed by an assessment of age-earnings profiles according to lawful status." (EXCERPT)