Behavioral Studies Debunk Myth that Most Immigrants Will Self-Deport
 
For Immediate Release

April 30, 2012

Washington D.C. - In the past week, news has spread that migration from Mexico has hit net zero. The Pew Hispanic Center reported that the number of Mexicans coming into the United States is equivalent to the number who leave the country. Pew assumes that most Mexicans who leave are doing so as a result of the bad U.S. economy, increased job opportunities at home, and ramped up deportations. However, for the approximately three-fifths of unauthorized immigrants who have been here for more than a decade, and the unauthorized parents of 4.5 million native-born, U.S.-citizen children, the calculation is very different.

Today, the Immigration Policy Center releases, The Myth of Self-Deportation: How Behavioral Economics Reveals the Fallacies behind “Attrition through Enforcement by Alexandra Filindra, Ph.D., a professor of behavioral economics who argues that those unauthorized immigrants who have put down substantial roots in the United States are unlikely to leave. In fact, preliminary evidence from studies conducted in states where strong enforcement laws have been enacted shows that immigration restrictionists have gotten it wrong. Immigrant populations in these states have remained in place and the predicted exodus has never materialized. This report uses important research findings from cognitive psychology and behavioral economics to explain why people do not behave the way that immigration restrictionists expect them to.

To view the report in its entirety, see:

 The Myth of Self-Deportation: How Behavioral Economics Reveals the Fallacies behind “Attrition through Enforcement by Alexandra Filinda, Ph.D. (IPC Special Report, April, 2012)

 Study Shows Self-Deportation is Irrational Behavior and a False Premise (Blog Post, ImmigrationImpact.com, April 30, 2012)

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For more information, contact Wendy Sefsaf at wsefsaf@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524.