Mexican immigrants and the wages and unemployment experience of native workers.

This paper examines the impact of legal and illegal Mexican immigration on the unemployment experience and wages of native workers in metropolitan areas of the Southwestern United States. The analysis is based on individual-level data on wages annual earnings current employment status and job history for the year 1979 for males residing in 47 standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs) in five southwestern states as well as aggregate-level data on the numbers of legal and undocumented Mexican immigrants in each SMSA. The data indicate that the labor market effects of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 may be the opposite of those intended. "Rather than improving the earnings and employment prospects of natives the increase in the number of legal immigrants and any decrease in the number of undocumented immigrants brought about by IRCA may reduce earnings and increase unemployment among natives." (EXCERPT)