Methods of Analysis of Illegal Immigration into the United States

Abstract

A major barrier to the discussion of the scope and impact of illegal immigration on the American economy has been the inadequacy of existing data. Although data problems are not unique to this topic, the limited availablity of macro-data on the size of the annual flows and of the accumulated stock of individuals as well as of micro-data on their influences on selected labor markets has been effectively used to forestall policy reform efforts.