UC Riverside

This dissertation is an attempt to extend our understanding of how a country may benefit from immigration as well as to examine the potential costs associated with immigration. The first chapter, ``An Inquiry Into the Impact of Highly-skilled STEM Immigration on the U.S. Economy," examines whether foreign STEM workers displace or complement U.S.-born STEM workers and the potential benefit of high-skilled immigration. An important finding obtained from the analysis is that similarly skilled U.S. and foreign-born STEM workers are imperfect substitutes, implying that it is relatively hard for U.S. firms to fully replace its native STEM workers with their foreign-born counterparts. It is also estimated that STEM immigration from 2000 to 2015 yields approximately 103 billion USD (1.03% of U.S. GDP in 1999) benefit for U.S.-born workers.

Although immigration has benefits, there may be costs associated with admitting more immigrants into the country. In particular, there are concerns that undocumented immigration may lead to higher crime rates. The second chapter, ``On the Association Between Undocumented Immigration and Crime in the United States," examines whether this is the case. The main findings suggest that overall violent and property crime rates across the U.S. states are not statistically significantly increase by unauthorized immigration.

The final chapter, ``Immigration and the Health of United States Natives," examines the relationship between immigration and the health of the native population in the United States. There are two competing forces in which immigration may affect the health of U.S.-born individuals. On the one hand, immigration may put a strain on the health care system, adversely impacting the health of the native population. On the other hand, immigration could nudge native workers from risk-intensive, physically demanding jobs towards occupations that require more communication and interactive ability, potentially improving their health. The main findings fail to show that immigration adversely affects the health of U.S. natives. Instead, it suggests that the presence of low-skilled immigrants may improve the health of low-skilled U.S.-born individuals.