Essays on the economics of immigration in the United States

Between 1960 and 2000 the percentage of the United States population classified as immigrants increased from approximately 6% to 12%. In this dissertation I analyze the effects of this increased immigration on both native educational choices as well as on native population changes.;In Chapter 1, I use a panel of school districts across the United States to investigate whether increased immigrant presence in U.S. public school districts between 1990 and 2000 has led to increases in native private school enrollment. Results show that native flight to private schools due to increased immigrant presence in public schools is largely driven by the white population; an additional 10 immigrants in public schools leads to approximately 2 additional white natives enrolled in private schools. While Chapter 1 focuses on outcomes measured at the school district level, it is important to understand which schools are most likely to be impacted by this flight within a school district. Chapter 2 answers this question by focusing on native flight from individual public and private schools in the state of Florida between 2001 and 2007. Analysis at the individual school level confirms native flight is driven by white natives and is most prevalent in public schools that are located in close proximity to a private school. Results suggest that an additional 4 white students enroll in a particular private school for every 5 additional immigrant children who enroll in the 5 closest public schools to that private school.;Chapter 3 investigates the short-run population changes of native individuals to an increase in the immigrant population in a metropolitan area. Using annual level population totals for approximately 150 metropolitan areas from 2000-2009, I estimate that an additional immigrant leads to an increase in the low-skill native population of approximately 0.5 to 0.8 individuals in that current year. Results also show that high skill native populations decrease as immigrant inflows increase to a given metropolitan area.