Foreign-born College Students:
How much could they contribute to the US economy?
Gaetano Basso and Giovanni Peri
Abstract The Unites States College and University system is schooling an increasing number of students from all over the world. For a very large portion of those, namely those on F1 visas and those with no documentation, the transition to the US labor market can be very difficult, if not impossible. This results into re-migration or under-employment of these highly skilled workers. We quantify the size of these populations and the employment and wage losses to US states and local economies from the constraints imposed by immigration status on those students. We suggest that some recent policies that have increased legal access to jobs for these two categories, such as the extension of optional practical training (OPT) in 2008 and the temporary status granted by DACA to undocumented college educated in 2012 may have increased their college to local jobs transition rates. There is scope for larger gains when adopting policies that would substantially increase the labor perspectives in the US of F1 and undocumented college students. We suggest some local policies that could prove to be innovative ways to strengthen local economies and link immigration policies to local economic incentives
