We examine the impact of differences in state‐level higher education policies on location choices of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. using six years of available data over the period 2000 to 2012. The effect of greater access to higher education on the percentage of undocumented migrants residing in a state is positive, suggesting the existence of a “higher public education magnet” effect. Among states with favorable higher education policies, undocumented migrants prefer those states with larger networks, despite the likelihood of greater competition for admission to public institutions of higher education. However, undocumented migrants are reluctant to locate in states that have both large networks and unfavorable educational policies. This is possibly because the fear of attracting additional restrictive regulations dominates the positive cost‐saving effect of large networks.

中文翻译：

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无证移民的地点选择：获得高等教育的机会是否重要？

我们使用2000年至2012年期间的六年可用数据，研究了州级高等教育政策的差异对美国无证移民的地点选择的影响。高等教育机会的增加对居住在无证移民中的百分比的影响在一个状态下是积极的，表明存在“更高的公共教育吸引力”效应。在实行有利的高等教育政策的州中，无证件移民更喜欢那些网络较大的州，尽管可能会为进入公立高等教育机构而进行更大的竞争。但是，没有证件的移民不愿在既有大型网络又有不利的教育政策的州居住。