Different but the Same

This article builds on prior studies that document how legal status stratifies society, specifically in outcomes related to international migration. Here, we study such outcomes in Bangladesh, a low-lying nation that has experienced dramatic environmental changes in recent decades and high rates of out-migration. We do event history analyses of a new and unique dataset that includes information from approximately eighteen hundred households in nine villages to investigate whether and how legal status differentiates out-migration from Bangladesh. We find substantial variation in legal status among the women and men who make an initial international trip and that unauthorized migration affects other labor market and economic outcomes: it reduces the number of hours that migrants work in destination countries, lowers the odds that migrants pay taxes or open a bank account, and increases the odds that migrants use social contacts to find jobs.

[1]  Cecilia Menjívar,et al.  Liminal Legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan Immigrants' Lives in the United States1 , 2006, American Journal of Sociology.

[2]  Leisy J Abrego.  Legitimacy, Social Identity, and the Mobilization of Law: The Effects of Assembly Bill 540 on Undocumented Students in California , 2008, Law & Social Inquiry.

[3]  D. Massey,et al.  What happened to the wages of Mexican immigrants? Trends and interpretations , 2010, Latino studies.

[4]  D. Massey,et al.  Double Disadvantage , 2016 .

[5]  Julie A. Phillips,et al.  The new labor market: Immigrants and wages after IRCA , 1999, Demography.

[6]  Elisabeth Meze-Hausken.  Contrasting climate variability and meteorological drought with perceived drought and climate change in northern Ethiopia , 2004 .

[7]  G. Roberts.  Women in Motion: Globalization, State Policies, and Labor Migration in Asia , 2006 .

[8]  Joel B. Smith,et al.  Development and climate change in Bangladesh: focus on coastal flooding and the Sundarbans , 2003 .

[9]  T. Siddiqui.  International labour migration from Bangladesh: a decent work perspective , 2005 .

[10]  R. Black,et al.  Foresight: Migration and global environmental change, final project report , 2017 .

[11]  D. Massey,et al.  Changing conditions in the US labor market , 1992 .

[12]  D. Massey,et al.  Undocumented Migration to the United States and the Wages of Mexican Immigrants , 2014 .

[13]  K. Donato,et al.  Immigration Policy and Employment Conditions of US Immigrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic1 , 2005 .

[14]  K. Donato,et al.  Shifts in the employment outcomes among Mexican migrants to the United States, 1976–2009 , 2012 .

[15]  Katha Kartiki.  Climate change and migration: a case study from rural Bangladesh , 2011 .

[16]  Atiq Rahman,et al.  Salinity-induced loss and damage to farming households in coastal Bangladesh , 2013 .

[17]  S. Smith.  Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System , 2008 .

[18]  I. Overeem,et al.  Farming practices and anthropogenic delta dynamics , 2013 .

[19]  Kushal Roy,et al.  Shrimp Culture: Trend, Consequences and Sustainability in the South-western Coastal Region of Bangladesh , 2010 .

[20]  Jennifer M. Chacón.  Producing Liminal Legality , 2015 .

[21]  Emily Greenman,et al.  The Occupational Cost of Being Illegal in the United States: Legal Status, Job Hazards, and Compensating Differentials 1 , 2015, Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation.

[22]  A. Azad,et al.  Coastal Aquaculture Development in Bangladesh: Unsustainable and Sustainable Experiences , 2009, Environmental management.

[23]  George Farkas,et al.  Legal Status and Wage Disparities for Mexican Immigrants , 2010, Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation.

[24]  Douglas S. Massey,et al.  Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration , 2002 .

[25]  K. Donato,et al.  Shifts in the Employment Conditions of Mexican Migrant Men and Women , 2008 .

[26]  R. Kuhn.  The Determinants of Family and Individual Migration: A Case-Study of Rural Bangladesh , 2005 .

[27]  Roberto G. Gonzales.  Left Out But Not Shut Down: Political Activism and the Undocumented Student Movement , 2008 .

[28]  C. Gray,et al.  Natural disasters and population mobility in Bangladesh , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[29]  D. Massey,et al.  Effect of the Immigration Reform and Control Act on the wages of Mexican migrants. , 1993 .

[30]  D. Massey,et al.  Undocumented Migration and the Wages of Mexican Immigrants. , 2014, The International migration review.