WAGE MOBILITY OF UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS IN THE UNITED-STATES

This study addresses two fundamental questions about the economic assi milation of undocumented immigrants in the United States: 1) how diffe rent recently legalized immigrants are from all foreign-born persons a nd native-born whites; 2) whether wages of undocumented Immigrants imp rove as they acquire greater amounts of U.S. experience and, if so, ho w these improvements are comparable to those of immigrants in general. We analyze the Legalized Population Survey and the Current Population Survey to assess the returns to U.S. experience and find positive ret urns to U.S. experience for both undocumented migrants and all foreign -born men. Returns to U.S. experience depend on region of origin. Undo cumented immigrants from Mexico received the lowest wage returns and m en from non-Spanish-speaking countries received the highest returns to U.S. experience.