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.     

Economic Well‐Being in Salvadoran Transnational Families: How Gender Affects Remittance Practices

This article examines how migrant parents' gender affects transnational families' economic well‐being. Drawing on 130 in‐depth interviews with Salvadoran immigrants in the United States and adolescent and young adult children of migrants in El Salvador, I demonstrate that the gender of migrant parents centrally affects how well their families are faring. Gender structurally differentiates immigrant parents' experiences through labor market opportunities in the United States. Simultaneously, gendered social expectations inform immigrants' approaches to parental responsibilities and remitting behaviors. Remittances—the monies parents send—directly shape children's economic well‐being in El Salvador. I find that even though immigrant mothers are structurally more disadvantaged than immigrant fathers, mother‐away families are often thriving economically because of mothers' extreme sacrifices.     

The Formation of Transnational Identity among French Immigrants Employed in French‐Speaking Companies in Israel

This study focuses on the formation of a transnational identity among immigrants from France who are employed in French‐speaking companies in Israel (mostly call‐centres). The preliminary qualitative analysis shows that this unique employment pattern contributes to the formation of their transnational identity, which is a combination of their francophone, Jewish and Israeli identity. The findings obtained from a larger‐scale online survey indicated that French immigrants employed in French‐speaking companies are more ethnically, socially and culturally segregated, and less fluent in Hebrew than French immigrants who are not employed in such companies. However, no significant differences were found between these two groups in their Israeli identity and sense of belonging to Israeli society. In general, the French immigrants feel at home in Israel, are satisfied with their life in Israel and plan to remain there. The implications of these findings for policymakers are discussed.     

English‐Language Proficiency among Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs in the United States, 1980–2000

This study assesses the determinants of English‐language proficiency among three subgroups of Israeli immigrants in the United States, namely native‐born Israeli Jews, foreign‐born Israeli Jews, and Palestinian Arabs, and how these determinants have changed over time. Multivariate analyses of decennial censuses from 1980, 1990, and 2000 reveal substantial differences in the directions and significance of the relationships between the independent variables and English proficiency of the subgroups under investigation. Ethnoreligious affiliation per se is seen to be an important factor that consistently explains intra‐group variation in English proficiency. This lends support to the split approach over the lump approach in attempting to understand immigrants’ linguistic dynamics in the new country. The findings are discussed in reference to three working hypotheses – “exposure,” “efficiency,” and “economic incentives” – and in the specific sociopolitical conditions of Jews and Arabs at both origin and destination.     

REPRODUCING NATION,REDESIGNING POSITIONING: RUSSIAN AND pALESTINIAN STUDENTS INTERPRET UNIVERSITY KNOWLEDGE

This paper discusses the reproduction of hegemony and social hierarchy through education. It brings together two case studies of marginal groups at a university—Russian Jewish immigrants and Palestinian Israeli women—who make sense of their position in social hierarchies and power relations through constant interpretative work on the various dimensions of university knowledge. The article reveals how marginal actors’ interpretations of knowledge simultaneously are guided by students’ positioning vis-à-vis the dominant collective and also articulate and redesign positioning. The two groups redesign their marginalities vis-à-vis the Israeli-Jewish collective by transforming knowledge to identity. In so doing, these groups reproduce national borders of Israeli social hierarchy, while working to change the meaning of these borders for their group's positioning.     

Institutional Structure and Immigrant Integration: A Comparative Study of Immigrants' Labor Market Attainment in Canada and Israel1

The present study focuses on the incorporation of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in two receiving societies, Israel and Canada, during the first half of the 1990s. Both countries conducted national censuses in 1995 (Israel) and 1996 (Canada), making it possible to identify a large enough sample of immigrants and provide information on their demographic characteristics and their labor market activity. While both Canada and Israel are immigrant societies, their institutional contexts of immigrant reception differ considerably. Israel maintains no economic selection of the Jewish immigrants and provides substantial support for newcomers, who are viewed as a returning Diaspora. Canada employs multiple criteria for selecting immigrants, and the immigrants' social and economic incorporation is patterned primarily by market forces. The analysis first examines the characteristics of immigrants who arrived in the two countries and evaluates the extent of selectivity. Consistent with our hypotheses, Russian immigrants to Canada were more immediately suitable for the labor market, but experienced greater difficulty finding and maintaining employment. Nevertheless, immigrants to Canada attained higher‐status occupations and higher earnings than their compatriots in Israel did, although the Israeli labor market was more likely to reward their investments in education.     

Language Acquisition,Employment Status,and the Earnings of Jewish and Non-Jewish Immigrants in Israel

This article analyses the Hebrew language proficiency, probability of employment, and labour market earnings of immigrants in Israel. It uses the 2010/11 Immigrant Absorption Survey conducted by the Israeli CBS. In addition to standard immigration, demographic, and human capital variables, the analysis includes unique features: the study of long-duration immigrants, analyses of males’ and females’ primary reasons for immigration, the subsidized intensive Hebrew language training programme, Ethiopian Jews, and Jewish and non-Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union. Results from multivariate analyses largely accord with the “standard theoretical model” of language proficiency regarding the mechanisms of “exposure”, “efficiency”, and “economic incentives”. Acquaintance with the local language increases the likelihood of being employed and has positive earnings outcomes. We discuss implications of the findings for public policy which can improve the adjustment of these new immigrants to their new society, hence also moderate inter-group tensions.     

Is there any merit to the merit-based immigration system? What Sub-Saharan African immigrant labor and housing market outcomes tell us about U.S. economic and immigration systems

For decades, U.S. immigration policy debates have centered on creating a merit-based system limiting entry to high-skilled immigrants. Yet the emphasis on merit-based immigration ignores the fact that high-skilled immigrants already enter the United States in merit-based immigration assume high-skilled immigrants benefit the U.S. economy because they are better able than low-skilled immigrants to translate skills into economic success. Using Sub-Saharan (Black) African immigrants' labor and housing market outcomes, I show that meritocracy only partially explains U.S. labor and housing outcomes, leaving a merit-based system unlikely to address America's economic needs. The majority of immigrants to the U.S. are non-White, and racial discrimination in the labor market results in occupational and wage disadvantages in the U.S. Due to the public charge rule, high skilled immigrants may be less likely to get their visas renewed or green card applications approved because of these labor market disadvantages. Without stable visa status, high-skilled immigrants will be less likely to make long-term economic investments in the United States—an important way of contributing to the U.S. economy. Together, research indicates that U.S. immigration reform will not work without first enacting policy addressing racial disparities in economic systems.     

Is Islam in Western Europe Like Race in the United States?

Asking whether Islam in Western Europe is like race in the United States is, to a large degree, to ask whether Muslims in Europe share the same fate and face the same barriers as blacks in the United States. The article considers (1) the nature of the hostility to Islam in Western Europe and why it is a greater barrier to inclusion for immigrants and their children than in the United States; (2) the dynamics of color‐coded race in the United States, comparing, on the one hand, the severe barriers confronting individuals and groups with African ancestry in the United States with the barriers facing Muslims (as well as black immigrants) in Western Europe and, on the other hand, considering certain advantages available to immigrants of color in the United States that Muslim and other immigrants lack in Europe; and (3) whether the boundary based on religion will prove more permeable for the descendants of Muslim immigrants in Western Europe than the racial boundary in the United States for those with visible African ancestry.     

Race and school enrollment among the children of African immigrants in the United States

This study examines whether previous findings of an immigrant schooling advantage among Blacks in the United States reflect a declining significance of race in the enrollment patterns of immigrants’ children. Using data from the 2000 US census, the study finds that, despite their advantage within the Black population, the children of Black Africans are collectively disadvantaged relative to the children of White Africans. Disparate enrollment trajectories are found among children in Black and White African families. Specifically, between the first and second generations, enrollment outcomes improved among the children of White Africans but declined among Black Africans’ children. The results also suggest that among immigrants from African multi-racial societies, pre-migration racial schooling disparities do not necessarily disappear after immigration to the United States. Additionally, the children of Black Africans from these contexts have worse outcomes than the children of other Black African immigrants and their relative disadvantage persists even after other factors are controlled.     

Patterns of economic cooperation among Israeli immigrants in Los Angeles

"This article examines economic activities developed among Israeli immigrants in Los Angeles. Previous studies have asserted that little cooperation exists among Israelis in the United States. However, our findings, based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, suggest that Israelis are involved in a host of collective social and economic endeavors.... Forms of cooperation among two...groups, Kibbutzniks and Persian-origin Israelis, are discussed here. Israeli immigrants' use of ethnic labor markets [is] explored, as well as the nature of co-ethnic cooperation in various industries. Conclusions suggest that Israeli immigrant cooperation is a complex matter, shaped by national loyalties, subgroup ties and the larger social and economic contexts in which they function."     

The ingathering: Reasons of state,logic of capital and the assimilation of immigrants in Israel 1948–60

After more than 50 years of statehood ethnicity still looms large in Israeli politics as the division between Israelis of non‐European and European descent plays a central part in Israeli politics. This article, examining patterns of immigrant assimilation in the 1950s, seeks to explain why, despite an all embracing Jewish identity and the massive efforts of the state to erase ethnic identities, the categories have retained so much of their weight. Assimilation and modernization, directed towards immigrants, were both constituted and limited by the mutually constitutive, yet sometimes contradictory dictates of state building and the formation of a market economy. Assimilation facilitated the settlement of immigrants along the frontier, mobilized and motivated them into shouldering security demands, and helped to create a productive labour force. But, contrary to the inclusive military apparatus, the policies of settlement and employment relegated immigrants to the periphery. Consequently, while immigrants assimilated and gradually achieved some economic progress and political leverage due to the remaining disparities and past resentments ethnic identity persisted.     

Challenging transitions? Assessing the occupational mobility patterns of US immigrants by gender

This article uses the New Immigrant Survey to assess the occupational mobility of US immigrants. Estimates from OLS and Heckman selection models show the occupational mobility of immigrants follows a U-shaped pattern: immigrants arriving in the United States see their occupational status decline before it gradually improves. However, even 9 years after coming to the United States, the occupational status of immigrants remains lower than prior to their arrival in the country. Our findings also suggest that immigrant women with higher occupational status tend to move more often to the United States than immigrant men. Conversely, immigrant women are more likely than men to experience career interruptions after migration. Finally, occupational employment growth rates (defined as the growth rate in the number of jobs for an occupation) have a positive impact on both men and women immigrants' ability to recover their occupational status, though the impact appears to be greater for immigrant women.     

Non‐Citizen Mexican Youth in US Higher Education: A Closer Look at the Relationship between State Tuition Policies and College Enrollment

This paper examines state policies that extend or deny in‐state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Using the Current Population Survey (1997–2010), we assess changes in college enrollment among Mexican‐born non‐citizens — a proxy for the undocumented population. In contrast to previous analyses, we find that policies extending in‐state tuition to undocumented youth do not directly affect rates of college enrollment. However, we find that Mexican‐born non‐citizen youth residing in states that deny in‐state tuition have a 12.1 percentage point lower probability of being enrolled in college than their peers living in states with no such policies.     

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.     

Transnationalism and Ethnic Identification among Adolescent Children of Immigrants in the Netherlands,Germany, England,and Sweden

Inspired by the emerging literature on transnationalism in the United States, this paper studies the return visits of adolescent children of immigrants in four European countries. Using data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, cross‐classified multilevel analyses indicate that parental economic resources, ethnic motivations, and political suppression are related to adolescent children of immigrants' return visits. Furthermore, return visits are positively related to adolescents' identification with the origin country and negatively to adolescents' identification with the host country.     

Peripherization of immigrant professionals: Korean physicians in the United States

Using data on the characteristics of 1043 physicians who graduated from a medical school in Korea, the authors analyze the effects of immigrant status, gender, and year of graduation on their choice of medical practice specialty. The specialty areas are categorized into 2 groups, "core" and "periphery," on the basis of the reported median income of practitioners in each specialty. The results of log-linear model analyses indicate that female physicians are more likely to immigrate to the United States than male physicians, although the general trend of immigration does not notably change over time. In the main equation, immigration status shows a significant peripheral effect as immigrant physicians are much more likely to practice in peripheral areas than their home-staying counterparts. Gender status is also found to have a significant peripheral effect. When these Korean immigrant physicians are compared with the US-educated physicians in regard to their areas of practice, the same pattern of peripherization is observed among the immigrants. The findings suggest that, despite their secular image of "success," immigrant professionals in the United States carry on the same kind of marginal economic activities within the professional labor market as unskilled immigrant workers do within the nonprofessional labor market.     

Translating Spirituality: Universalism and Particularism in the Diffusion of Spiritual Care from the United States to Israel

Research on the transnational diffusion of ideas and practices shows how cultural objects go through translation, adaptation, and vernacularization when implemented in new localities. Less attention is given to the translators themselves and their heterogeneous and often conflicting visions. Drawing on the notion of transnational social fields (TSF s), this article investigates how cultural objects get vernacularized differently in different parts of the TSF , demonstrating how processes of translation reflect larger social and political struggles over questions of identity. As a case study, we focus on the attempt of actors from Israel and the United States to institutionalize spiritual care in Israeli health‐care organizations. The analysis reveals how spiritual care functioned as a porous cultural object, open to a wide range of interpretations and debates. While actors in New York saw in spiritual care the opportunity to bridge to Israeli Jews and create a global Jewish identity, Israeli actors split between using spiritual care as a vehicle for creating a local Israeli Jewish identity and seeing in spiritual care the opportunity to establish universal identities, broader than the Jewish one. The disagreement and conflicts between the groups influenced the translation process, turning it into a contentious struggle that involved different positions on the continuum between particularism and universalism.     

Collective identity and readiness for social relations with Jews among Palestinian Arab students at the David Yellin Teacher Training College in Israel

This paper argues that the two national components of identity among Palestinian Arab students in Israel—the Arab component and the Palestinian component—are strong, while the civil Israeli component is very weak. This paper also argues that although social relations between Arab students and Jewish students are very limited, the readiness of Arab students for professional and social relations with Jewish students is greater than the perceived readiness of Jewish students for social relations with Arab students. Correlation coefficients between collective identity and readiness for social relations with Jews reveal that there is no connection between the components of collective identity of Arab students and their familiarity with Jewish students and readiness to have professional and social relations with them.     

ASSESSING THE PRIVATE SAFETY NET: Social Support among Minority Immigrant Parents

Traditional assimilation paradigms argue that immigrants are particularly disadvantaged in feelings of marginality and dislocation. Given these paradigms, we explore how minority and immigrant status are associated with perceptions of social support among parents of young children. We use the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a nationally representative sample of children in kindergarten in 1998 and 1999. Most groups of minority immigrant parents, compared to their native-born white counterparts, report lower levels of perceived social support, and this gap persists even when demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are held constant. Additionally, English language ability, but not years spent in the United States, attenuates the disadvantages that Hispanic immigrant parents face in their perceptions of social support compared with white immigrant parents. Finally, Hispanic parents report substantial variation in their perceptions of social support by ethnicity. As social support is an important predictor of parents' economic stability and children's well-being, these findings have important implications for children of immigrants, an important and increasing demographic group in the United States.