Secure communities as immigration enforcement: How secure is the child care market?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ali, Umair; Brown, Jessica H.; Herbst, Chris M.
• 署名单位: University of South Carolina System; University of South Carolina Columbia; Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105101
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: Child care; maternal employment; immigration; Secure Communities

摘要

Immigrants comprise nearly 20% of the child care workforce in the U.S. This paper studies the impact of a major immigration enforcement policy, Secure Communities (SC), on the structure and functioning of the child care market. Relying on the staggered introduction of SC across counties between 2008 and 2014, we find that the program reduced children's participation in center -based child care programs. The estimated reductions are substantially larger among advantaged children and in jurisdictions with a greater fraction of undocumented individuals. We also find that SC reduced the equilibrium supply and wages of immigrant and native workers in the center -based sector as well as the number of center -based facilities. There is no compensating increase in the home -based or private household sectors. Our findings suggest that immigrants and natives are likely to be complements in child care service production.