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Monica Deza (Economics/Mathematics major)
“Effect of First Generation Immigrants’ Time Horizons on the Human Capital Acquisitions of Second Generation Immigrants”
Sponsor: Professor David Card, Economics
Project Description
Previous research in the Economic field has found that immigrants' social, economic, educational and family decisions differ depending on whether they come permanently or temporarily, with important effects on earnings and income. Other work has demonstrated the effects of immigrant parents' education and income on their children's future outcomes. However, there is a notable gap between these two literatures: Previous studies have largely ignored the impacts of immigrants' return migration plans on their children&Mac226;s future earnings and human capital. My objective with this research is to combine these two existing literatures in a project that analyzes the effect of first generation immigrants' (parents) time horizons on the human capital acquisition decisions of second generation immigrants (children). I plan to extend previous research and explain how time horizons of parents at the time of migration will affect their children's future income.
Scholar's Photo
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Monica explains her methodology with confidence despite feeling anxious and nervous.
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Scholar's Journal
This picture was taken Sunday, August 14th at the McNair Symposium at UC Berkeley. It was my first time presenting my research project in front of a big audience as an actual researcher. It is hard to describe how proud I was of my thesis. It was arduous work throughout the summer. However, it wasthe expectations I had for this project to have an impact on policy regulations that kept me going every time I got frustrated by the software and the statistical analysis required for this project. It was very challenging to keep a narrow focus on the topic. Once I had the dataset, it was very tempting to start looking at information that was not related to my thesis question. However, that lead me to some interesting findings.
I will never forget the first time that I talked to my mentor about a possible honors thesis. I did not know what I was going to write my thesis about. The only thing I knew is that I wanted to write it on immigrants. Professor Card, my mentor, referred me to some books that gave me ideas about a variety of topic related to immigration in America. After working an entire summer with statistical data for second generation immigrants, surprisingly, I cannot see them as statistics anymore. I learned a lot about their needs, and I felt some responsibility as a member of their ethnic cohort to do something about it.
I dedicate this first part of my honors thesis to first generation immigrants, especially Mexicans, whose hard work and enormous contribution to the American economy make me proud of being a Hispanic immigrant. Although we economists are limited in the choices we have to help them succeed in the American economy, mostly because of their legal status, I hope this research will have some impact on policy regulations that will favor their children’s educational attainment, as a way to compensate them for all they have done for this country.
Presenting at the McNair symposium was definitely a great experience. I realize that doing research on the economic impact of immigration is definitely what I want to do the rest of my life. Doing this research made me feel more confident about applying this year to several PhD programs. I hope to make the Haas Scholars Program proud some day.
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