Using the most current data available, the essays collected here offer a timely assessment of the impact of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), which constitutes the most significant U.S. immigration policy initiative of recent years. The contributors--all well-known researchers active in analyzing immigration issues--examine such key questions as: How has the implementation of IRCA proceeded? What have been its effects so far? Have the goals of the immigration policy reform been fulfilled? What potential impact on the U.S. economy can the policy reforms be expected to have over the next few years? Taken together, their essays provide a comprehensive picture of the state of the art in the area of immigration policy research and a first look at the actual effects of IRCA on undocumented immigration to America.

Each chapter analyzes a particular aspect or aspects of IRCA. Francisco Rivera-Batiz begins with an introduction and overview of U.S. immigration policy reform in the 1980s. Michael Hoefer then describes in detail the provisions of IRCA and shows how the law has been implemented to date. In the next essay, Barry Chiswick analyzes the effectiveness of the employer sanctions mandated by the bill. Subsequent chapters examine such issues as the critical role played by undocumented workers in the agricultural sector of the U.S. southwest, substitution and complementarity between immigrant and native labor, and the economic implications of immigration law reform. The contributors are united in the view that IRCA has worked well in its legalization aspects, reaching a large portion of the undocumented population. They raise questions about the employer sanctions provisions, however, and express doubts as to whether IRCA can be expected to have any major constraining effect on illegal immigration over the next few years.

Culture is not new to the study of migration. It has lurked beneath the surface for some time, occasionally protruding openly into the discussion, usually under some pseudonym. The authors of the papers in this volume bring culture into the open. They are concerned with how culture manifests itself in the migration process for three groups of actors: the migrants, those remaining in the sending areas, and people already living in the recipient locations. The topics vary widely. What unites the authors is an understanding that though actors behave differently, within a group there are economically important shared beliefs (customs, values, attitudes, etc.), which we commonly referred to as culture. Culture plays a central role in our understanding of migration as an economic phenomenon. While the papers in this volume occasionally touch on this diversity and the conflicts it engenders, this is not the focus of the volume. Here the emphasis is on the distinctions in culture between migrants, the families they left behind, and the local population in the migration destination. The new interactions directly affect all three groups. Assimilation is one result; separation is also a possibility. Location choice, workplace interaction, enclave size, the opportunity for the migrant obtaining credit in their new country, the local population's reaction to migrants, the political culture of the migrants and local population, links to the country-of-origin, and the economic state of the host country, all contribute to the classic conflict between assimilation and separation. This volume will consider different aspects of the process of assimilation considering the affect on the migrants themselves, on the local population, on the families left at the home country and others.