Does Naturalization Increase Years of Education? Effect of IRCA on Educational Attainment of Undocumented Immigrant Children

This paper studies the effect of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (“IRCA”) on the educational attainment of undocumented immigrant children. IRCA provided a path to citizenship for over 3 million undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States. I use data from the American Community Survey 5-Year Public Use Sample for the period 2013 through 2017 to estimate the effect on completed educational attainment. Using a differences-in-differences model, I compare childhood immigrants who arrived before the 1982 cutoff to those who arrived after. The second difference compares those who were born in countries with high applications rates (“high take-up”) and with low application rates (“low take-up”). Unexpectedly, I find no evidence that IRCA improved education outcomes. I even find partial evidence that IRCA decreased educational attainment, but this effect is primarily driven by Mexico. After dropping Mexico, I find a “zero” effect, making it unclear whether the relationship is due to unobservable changes in Mexican immigration or to the policy.