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The Effects of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on the Educational Outcomes of Undocumented Students

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Demography

Abstract

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is the first large-scale immigration policy to affect undocumented immigrants in the United States in decades and offers eligible undocumented youth temporary relief from deportation as well as renewable work permits. Although DACA has improved the economic conditions and mental health of undocumented immigrants, we do not know how DACA improves the social mobility of undocumented immigrants through its effect on educational attainment. We use administrative data on students attending a large public university to estimate the effect of DACA on undocumented students’ educational outcomes. The data are unique because they accurately identify students’ legal status, account for individual heterogeneity, and allow separate analysis of students attending community colleges versus four-year colleges. Results from difference-in-difference estimates demonstrate that as a temporary work permit program, DACA incentivizes work over educational investments but that the effect of DACA on educational investments depends on how easily colleges accommodate working students. At four-year colleges, DACA induces undocumented students to make binary choices between attending school full-time and dropping out of school to work. At community colleges, undocumented students have the flexibility to reduce course work to accommodate increased work hours. Overall, the results suggest that the precarious and temporary nature of DACA creates barriers to educational investments.

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Notes

  1. Approximately 49 % of undocumented immigrants aged 18–24 attend college (Passel and Cohn 2009). By contrast, 70 % of the general population of high school graduates attains at least some college education (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017).

  2. We recognize that the compliance ratio among undocumented college students might be higher than 50 % because they are a selected group who are likely to be more motivated, more academically proficient, and of higher socioeconomic status compared with the general population of DACA–eligible youth. They may be more likely to apply and receive DACA. However, the compliance rate for DACA–eligible college students is unknown.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the William T. Grant Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. Thanks to Holly Reed; Sofya Aptekar; Thomas DiPrete; participants at the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research Center Seminar Series, Center for the Study of Wealth, and Inequality Seminar Series at Columbia University; and anonymous reviewers for insights on prior versions of this article. Keitaro Okura provided research assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY, 11367, USA

    Amy Hsin

  2. Department of Economics, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY, 11367, USA

    Francesc Ortega

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  1. Amy Hsin
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  2. Francesc Ortega
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Correspondence to Amy Hsin.

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Hsin, A., Ortega, F. The Effects of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on the Educational Outcomes of Undocumented Students. Demography 55, 1487–1506 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0691-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0691-6

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