Unauthorized Mexican Immigration, Day Labour and other Lower-wage Informal Employment in California

Abstract

Marcelli E. A. (2004) Unauthorized Mexican immigration, day labour and other lower-wage informal employment in California, Reg. Studies 38, 1–13. Consistent with the marginalization but not the globalization hypothesis, this paper finds that the level of lower-wage informal employment in California during the 1990s fell from 17% to 14% of the labour force; informal workers were more likely to be male, younger, non-white, foreign-born, and employed in the Personal Service and Agriculture sectors; and a Californian was more likely to work informally if residing in a relatively less populous, lower-income region with a relatively high rate of home ownership. Although welfare use had a positive effect on the probability of working informally in 1990, thereafter it did not.