This article analyzes the employment and wages of recently legalized immigrants in the US using the legalization application processing system (LAPS) file, an administrative file based on the individual records of amnesty applicants, and draws comparisons with a sample of the foreign-born population from the Current Population Surveys of 1983, 1986 and 1988. LAPS data reveal high rates of labor force participation among legalized immigrants, which exceeded the rates of the foreign-born population. Legal immigrants earn approximately 30% more than their undocumented counterparts from the same regional origins. The wage disadvantage of undocumented immigrants actually increases with age. This article describes the demographic and labor market characteristics of recently legalized immigrants based on information they submitted to the INS upon applying for amnesty. It describes the administrative data and provides a demographic profile of the study population. -from Authors

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