Immigration policy is often viewed as an important regulator of the flow of labor and human capital into the labor market. In the US context, this perspective underlies efforts to raise the educational levels of newly admitted US immigrants, which has been proposed through a variety of mechanisms. Yet it remains unclear whether and under what circumstances such changes would significantly raise the educational level of the US labor force. We use a microsimulation model to evaluate the effects of various policy proposals that would seek to admit more highly educated immigrants. Results suggest that adopting a Canadian‐style admissions policy that explicitly selects immigrants based on educational attainment would lead to a better educated labor force, especially among immigrants and their descendants. Eliminating all unauthorized immigration or family reunification and diversity admission categories, however, would have minimal impact. Additionally, the effects of all policy scenarios on the educational composition of the entire labor force are likely to be modest and would be conditional on the continuation of intergenerational mobility and high levels of immigration.

中文翻译：

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移民选择与美国劳动力的教育构成

移民政策通常被视为是劳动力和人力资本进入劳动力市场的重要调节器。在美国，这种观点为通过各种机制提出的提高新接纳美国移民的教育水平的努力奠定了基础。然而，目前尚不清楚这种变化是否以及在什么情况下会显着提高美国劳动力的教育水平。我们使用微观模拟模型来评估各种政策提案的效果，这些政策提案将寻求接纳受过高等教育的移民。结果表明，采用加拿大式的招生政策，即根据受教育程度明确选择移民，这将导致受过良好教育的劳动力，特别是在移民及其后代中。但是，消除所有未经授权的移民或家庭团聚和接纳多样性类别将产生最小的影响。此外，所有政策情景对整个劳动力的教育构成的影响可能是适度的，并且将以代际流动性的持续发展和高水平的移民为条件。