Self‐Selection and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants: The Case of Iranian Immigrants Arriving to Three Countries During 1979–1985

The study is designed to evaluate the impact of the interaction between patterns of immigrants' self‐selection and the context of reception at destinations on economic assimilation of Iranian immigrants who came to three countries during 1979–1985. For that purpose, we studied immigrants at the age of 22 or higher upon arrival by utilizing the 5 percent 1990 and 2000 Public Use Microdata files (PUMS) of the United States census, the 20 percent demographic samples of the 1983 and 1995 Israeli censuses of population, and the 1990 and 2000 Swedish registers. The results indicate that the “most qualified” immigrants – both on observed and unobserved variables – who left Iran right after the Islamic revolution, arrived in the US Their positive self‐selection led them to reach complete earnings assimilation with natives there. Iranian immigrants who arrived in Israel and Sweden did not achieve full earnings assimilation with natives. Of these two groups, a smaller immigrant‐to‐native gap in average earnings was found in Sweden, but in the same time Iranian immigrants in Israel were more positively self‐selected and showed better assimilation than their counterparts in Sweden. Market structure played a certain role in immigrants' earnings assimilation mainly in Sweden.     

SEGMENTED ASSIMILATION AMONG MEXICANS IN THE SOUTHWEST

This article examines segmented assimilation among foreign-born and U.S.-born Mexicans. Using the 2000 census, this article investigates how immigrants' length of residence in the United States and nativity affect the earnings and self-employment outcomes of low- and high-skilled Mexican men and women in the Southwest. Findings reveal that the earnings of low-skilled, foreign-born Mexicans decrease as immigrants reside in the United States longer and are generally lower among the U.S. born than the foreign born. In contrast, the earnings of high-skilled, foreign-born Mexicans increase as immigrants reside in the United States longer and are generally higher among U.S.-born Mexicans than foreign-born Mexicans. Moreover, self-employment participation decreases as immigrants reside in the United States longer and is lower among the U.S. born than the foreign born, regardless of skill. Since self-employment results in lower earnings, a decline in self-employment indicates economic progress. Furthermore, men are generally better off than women. Drawing from segmented assimilation theory, findings support the "downward assimilation" hypothesis among low-skilled Mexicans and the "Anglo-conformity" hypothesis among high-skilled Mexicans. Overall, this research provides evidence of intragroup differences in segmented assimilation among foreign-born and U.S.-born Mexicans in the Southwest.     

The Economic Assimilation of African Immigrants in the United States

This article examines the puzzle that the earnings of African immigrants do not match their high qualifications in terms of educational attainment. We apply cohort analysis to compare the economic assimilation patterns of black African immigrants with that of black non‐African immigrants. We find results that are consistent with the idea that the lower earnings of African immigrants are due to greater difficulty with skill transferability. Africans face substantially lower earnings at entry than black natives and black non‐African immigrants, although they close a substantial part of the initial earnings gap over time. Moreover, the earnings gap at entry has narrowed for recent cohorts; and Africans who migrate during childhood and those with no college education face no disadvantage. We also find similar patterns of assimilation in labour supply and participation in welfare programmes, which indicate that Africans face greater challenges at entry but assimilate at a faster rate.     

Estimating Self‐Selection of Immigrants: Comparing Earnings Differentials Between Natives and Immigrants in the US and Israel

Immigrants’ economic assimilation in host countries is determined by patterns of self‐selection on both – observed attributes (mainly human capital) and unobserved attributes of the immigrants from their source countries. In the present study immigrants’ economic assimilation in the United States and Israel are compared. More specifically, the study compares the impact of immigrants’ unobserved characteristics on their earnings in both countries by applying a model for decomposing difference in differentials. It makes use of United States and Israeli decennial census data for comparing self‐selection patterns on unobserved attributes of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) who arrived in the United States and Israel during the 1970s. The results indicate that FSU immigrants who chose the United States have significantly higher levels of unobserved earnings determinants than those who chose Israel. These results are discussed in light of migration theories.     

Variations in Fertility and Earning Patterns among Immigrants in the United States, 1970–1980: Assimilation or Disruption?*

"This paper examines the assimilation of immigrants in familial and economic fields.... Specific objectives are as follows: (1) to describe fertility and earning patterns among immigrants to the United States in 1970-1980, from several countries of origin, and (2) to describe some effects of assimilation, human capital, and the dual labor market perspectives on immigrant earnings." Findings vary in both fertility and economic categories for migrants depending on whether they are from developed or developing countries. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Testing the immigrant assimilation hypothesis with longitudinal data

This paper is concerned with the comparison of alternative empirical techniques (cross section, synthetic cohort and panel data) for testing the immigrant assimilation hypothesis (IAH). The IAH specifies that immigrants acquire destination relevant human capital, but at a decreasing rate, with duration in the destination. Hence, ceteris paribus, earnings would be expected to increase, at a decreasing rate, with duration. The true assimilation effects may be obscured, however, in analyses of synthetic cohort or panel (longitudinal) data if there are period effects. That is, if the effect on earnings of duration in the destination varies over time. The empirical analysis uses a matched sample of adult male immigrants from the 1983 and 1995 Censuses of Israel. The matched data show that selective exit from the labor force (due to death, absence from the labor force, and inability to match, but not the remigration of immigrants) is associated with lower earnings in 1983. This biases upward the earnings assimilation estimated by the synthetic cohort method. The earnings data are also consistent with the hypothesis that the mass immigration to Israel from 1989 to 1995 raised the return (price) to Israeli-specific human capital among long-duration immigrants sufficiently to more than offset the greater increase in units of destination human capital acquired by more recent immigrants. As a result, long-duration immigrants experienced a steeper increase in earnings from 1983 to 1995. This annulled the true assimilation effects from 1983 to 1995. Longitudinal tests of IAH which assume that the returns to destination-specific skills remained constant (i.e., that there are no period effects) are biased against supporting the IAH if these returns increased.     

Migration across developed countries: German immigrants in Sweden and the US

The present study evaluates the interplay between the effects of host countries' characteristics and self-selection patterns of immigrants from a highly developed country on their economic assimilation in other developed countries. The focus is on immigrants originated from Germany during 1990–2000 who migrated to Sweden and the US. The results show that almost all German immigrants reached full earnings assimilation with natives of similar observed attributes, and that the assimilation of highly educated Germans was better than that of the less educated. It was also found that the skilled immigrants were compensated for their human capital acquired in Germany. Finally, the better assimilation of German immigrants, especially the highly educated, took place in the US. This finding was probably the result of an interaction between the Germans’ pattern of self-selection and the US context of reception.     

The “Negative” Assimilation of Immigrants: a Counter-Example from the Canadian Labor Market

With Canadian data ranging from 1991 to 2011, this paper investigates the effects of the number of years since migration on the earnings of immigrants from the United States and the United Kingdom in Canada. The aim is to test whether the “negative assimilation” hypothesis proposed by Chiswick and Miller (Ind Labor Relat Rev 64(3):502–525, 2011) for immigrants to the United States is a universal finding for immigrants from countries with similar economic standing and skill transferability to those of the destination country. We also expand on Chiswick and Miller’s work by doing regressions for both males and females and by comparing to Chinese immigrants, a representative group from a less developed country. We find that the negative assimilation hypothesis does not hold for the Canadian labor market. Specifically, the assimilation rate is close to zero for U.K. immigrants and strictly positive for U.S. immigrants (although lower than that of a comparison group of Chinese immigrants). The assimilation rates are also higher for females than for males.     

Poverty among long-term united states immigrants

In this paper we analyze the economic and social characteristics of impoverished long-term immigrants. We investigate in what ways this group differs from poor natives and what factors contribute towards the economic success or failure of long-term immigrants. We found that poor long-term immigrants are more likely than poor natives to live in central cities and to work full-time, and less likely to live in non-female-headed households. Long-term immigrants from refugee countries are over six times as likely ana immigrants from Mexico over three times as likely to be poor as long-term immigrants from Europe, even after considering family structure, education, and citizenship. Also, immigrants who live in single female-headed families are considerably more likely to be poor than those who live in married-couple families, and immigrants in extended families are less likely to be poor than those who are not. The welfare reform bill redefines eligibility criteria for immigrants with respect to participation in Food Stamps, SSI and AFDC. Because of the high risk of poverty among long-term immigrants (particularly refugees), their low rates of naturalization, and the predominance of extended families, it is likely that long-term immigrants will suffer economic setbacks as a result of welfare reform. We posit that this economic hardship is exacerbated by the fact that anti-poverty policies are not tailored to the circumstances of long-term immigrants, many of whom already work full-time     

Wage Gap Paradox: The Case of Immigrants from the FSU in Israel

The purpose of this article was to investigate whether some groups of immigrants are particularly disadvantaged in their earnings compared to other population groups, to what extent wage gaps arise from discriminatory remuneration, and how immigrants’ wages change over time. The contribution of this study is twofold: it conceptualizes a wage gap paradox and delineates the indicators of discrimination in terms of earnings. Data from the 2010‐2014 Social Surveys in Israel were used. The results revealed evidence of a wage gap paradox for immigrants from the former Soviet Union: the wage gaps between them and other population groups do not close during time living in the host country, despite the high level of their formal credentials. Applying the Blinder‐Oaxaca decomposition, the study revealed that a sufficient part of the wage gap is attributable to discrimination, which prevented immigrants from full economic integration.     

The difference between wages and wage potentials: Earnings disadvantages of immigrants in Germany

Immigrants in Germany have poor earnings performance relative to natives. Claiming that human-capital endowments determine earnings potentials rather than actual earnings, a stochastic earnings frontier is estimated and used to seek systematic differences between natives and migrants for GSOEP data for the year 2000. While empirical results clearly support the frontier assumption, natives and immigrants are surprisingly about the same with respect to the frontier. Assuming a half-normal distribution of the wage gap, on average, both groups transform a modest 84% share of their potential income into market earnings. This implies wage inequality can be attributed to human-capital differentials alone. The human-capital endowments of immigrants are largely determined by the very low percentage who have college degrees, their slow assimilation and zero-return on imported experience. The paper also tries to explain individual wage gaps, which are significantly decreased in married subjects raising families, but increased in employees in small- or medium-sized relative to larger firms. However, these variables only make minor contributions to the variance.     

How Contexts of Reception Matter: Comparing Peruvian Migrants’ Economic Trajectories in Japan and the US

This paper examines how Peruvian migrants fare economically in two historically and culturally distinct host countries, Japan and the US, drawing upon a survey and interviews conducted in both countries. Peruvian migrants surveyed share similar socio‐economic backgrounds and migrated to both countries for similar reasons roughly around the same time. Yet, over time, they achieved more occupational upward mobility in the US than in Japan. Japan has not done quite as well as the US in providing immigrants with occupational opportunities due to its less diversified immigrant labor market, limited entrepreneurship opportunities, and restricted modes of immigrant incorporation. Does it mean, however, that Peruvian migrants are less successful in Japan than the US? Although occupational mobility is a commonly used measure of social mobility, the definitions and meanings of “success” are context‐dependent. Peruvians in the US do experience more occupational mobility, but diverge more greatly in economic achievement amongst themselves. In Japan, on the other hand, while they experience little occupational mobility, they have had more economic equality with relatively stable and high wages. The paper examines Peruvian migrants’ distinct economic trajectories over time, focusing on their occupational mobility. We conclude that occupational mobility matters, not necessarily because it accompanies higher income, but because it shapes migrants’ aspirations. In the context where immigrants’ destinations have become more diverse in the world, the paper provides insights into how immigrants “make it” and what it means to “make it” in recent destinations, such as Japan, in comparison to more traditional immigrant countries, such as the US.     

Reversal of Fortunes or Continued Success? Cohort Differences in Education and Earnings of Childhood Immigrants1

Using several years of Canadian census data, this study examines cohort differences in educational attainment and earnings among childhood immigrants who arrived in Canada between 1960 and 1989. Successive cohorts of childhood immigrants had increasingly higher university completion rates than their Canadian-born peers by age 25–34. We find that this lead was tempered by declining earnings of immigrant parents relative to Canadian-born parents, particularly among the 1980s cohort. Despite rising university completion rates, wages of male (but not female) childhood immigrants lagged behind those of their Canadian-born peers. This gap can be accounted for largely by the rising share of members of racial minority groups and the decreasing incidence of full-time employment.     

The Human Capital Model of Selection and Immigrant Economic Outcomes

This article examines the trends in the economic advantage that highly educated immigrants hold over less educated immigrants in Canada, focusing on the differences between short‐run and longer‐run outcomes. Using data from the Longitudinal Immigration Database covering the period from the 1980s to the 2000s, this study finds that the relative entry earnings advantage that higher education provides to new immigrants has decreased dramatically over the last 30 years. However, university‐educated immigrants had a much steeper earnings trajectory than immigrants with trades or a high school education. The earnings advantage among highly educated immigrants increases significantly with time spent in Canada. This pattern is observed for virtually all immigrant classes and arrival cohorts. The results suggest that short‐run economic outcomes of immigrants are not good predictors of longer‐run results, at least by educational attainment. The implications of these findings for immigration selection policy are discussed in the conclusion.     

Economic Integration among Children of Israeli Immigrants in the United States

The paper analyses the economic assimilation of first, 1.5, and second generation Israeli Jewish immigrants in the United States. The empirical analyses are based on the 1990 public use sample (PUMS) that enables the identification of adult children of Jewish Israeli immigrants. The analyses show that all groups of Jewish Israeli immigrants in the United States are doing very well relative to a benchmark of native‐born Americans. The comparisons also indicate that children of immigrants — both men and women — are even more successful economically than the immigrants themselves. The economic success of Israeli immigrants and their offspring in the United States is due not only to their high level of education, but also to unmeasured traits that help them earn more than demographically comparable natives.     

IMMIGRANT AND EMIGRANT EARNINGS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

This paper analyzes the relationship between earnings and the extent of assimilation, cohort quality change, and return migration experienced by the foreign-born population. The study uses the longitudinal data available in the Survey of Natural and Social Scientists and Engineers. The analysis reveals that there was a sizable decline in the skills of this population over the last two decades. In addition, the study shows that return migration is more likely among immigrants who did not perform well in the U.S. labor market.     

Between Two Worlds: Source‐Country Gender Roles and Gender Differences in Educational Attainment among Immigrant Children

Recent scholarship has focused on the relationship between source‐country characteristics such as female labor force participation, fertility, level of economic development, gender role attitudes, and immigrants’ labor market assimilation. These studies refer to national‐level factors when accounting for the vast differences in home‐country groups in labor market outcomes. This study asks to what extent these source‐country characteristics affect immigrant children's educational outcomes. Using data from the 2006 Canadian Census and World Values Survey, this article examines the extent to which the gender gap in educational attainment among immigrant children is associated with source‐country factors. Female child immigrants who come from countries with high female labor force participation and high levels of GDP have an advantage over their male counterparts in university education. Source‐country gender role ideology played a role in university completion rates for immigrant parents, but not for child immigrants.     

Immigrants working with co‐ethnics: Who are they and how do they fare?

Participation in ethnic economies has been regarded as an alternative avenue of economic adaptation for immigrants and minorities in major immigrant‐receiving countries. This study examines one important dimension of ethnic economies: co‐ethnic concentration at the workplace. Using a large national representative sample from Statistics Canada’s 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, this study addresses four questions: (1) what is the level of co‐ethnic concentration at the workplace for Canada’s minority groups? (2) How do workers who share the same ethnicity with most of their co‐workers differ from other workers in socio‐demographic characteristics? (3) Is higher level of co‐ethnic concentration at the workplace associated with lower earnings? (4) Is higher level of co‐ethnic concentration at the workplace associated with higher levels of life satisfaction? The results show that only a small proportion of immigrants and the Canadian‐born work in ethnically homogeneous settings. In Canada’s eight largest metropolitan areas about 10 per cent of non‐British/French immigrants share a same ethnic origin with the majority of their co‐workers. The level is as high as 20 per cent among Chinese immigrants and 18 per cent among Portuguese immigrants. Among Canadian‐born minority groups, the level of co‐ethnic workplace concentration is about half the level for immigrants. Immigrant workers in ethnically concentrated settings have much lower educational levels and proficiency in English/French. Immigrant men who work mostly with co‐ethnics on average earn about 33 per cent less than workers with few or none co‐ethnic coworkers. About two thirds of this gap is attributable to differences in demographic and job characteristics. Meanwhile, immigrant workers in ethnically homogenous settings are less likely to report low levels of life satisfaction than other immigrant workers. Among the Canadian‐born, co‐ethnic concentration is not consistently associated with earnings and life satisfaction.     

Social Capital and Mental Health among Brazilian Immigrants in Japan

This study investigates the effect of social capital on the psychological well-being of Brazilian immigrants in Japan. Social capital in immigrants has drawn considerable attention from sociologists and other social scientists because many advanced countries have accepted a large number of immigrants from other countries. Previous studies of immigration in the US have emphasized the important role of bonding social capital with family and co-ethnic friends in helping immigrants obtain social and emotional support from others. Conversely, other studies of immigration in European countries have suggested that bonding social capital with co-ethnic members does not necessarily lead to better outcomes. These contrasting findings demonstrate that social capital is largely embedded in the institutional settings within which immigrants deploy it. In this study, we explored how the psychological well-being of Brazilian immigrants in Japan depended on different forms of social capital. The results indicate that despite the lack of economic resources in their ethnic communities, Brazilian immigrants benefited significantly from bonding social capital with their extended families in terms of improved mental health. This study suggests that the effectiveness of bonding social capital substantially differs in terms of the objective and subjective realities of immigrants.     

Immigrant Assimilation, Canada 1971–2006: Has the Tide Turned?

Based on the micro files of the Canadian Census we document an increasing earnings penalty for cohorts of immigrants arriving after the late-1970s, especially for the most recent cohort. We also find much quicker assimilation rates for these cohorts, especially for the most recent cohort. Since the late-1970s, the increasing earnings penalty dominated their more rapid assimilation, so that immigrants exhibited ever-deteriorating patterns of integration into the Canadian labour market. For the most recent cohort (2002–2006), this reversed itself, suggesting that the tide may have turned. We find this for both men and women. Our findings are robust across alternative regression specifications, as well as a sample that only considers full-time and full-year workers.