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7 Labor Market Outcomes of Female Immigrants in the United States
Pages 239-288

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From page 239...
... During the postwar period, the share of immigrants originating in Europe and Canada fell sharply, with the slack taken up by surging immigration from Asia and Latin America. A growing body of empirical research indicates that more recent immigrant arrival cohorts are less skilled and have been less successful in the labor market than earlier cohorts, and that there are important links between the shifts in national origins and declining immigrant skills (Borj es, 1994)
From page 240...
... In the next two sections we describe the census data and some of the basic patterns evident in these data. In the fourth section we discuss the regression framework we use to estimate the effects of arrival cohort and assimilation on immigrant outcomes.
From page 241...
... In the first part of this section, we examine the cross-sectional patterns of immigrant cohorts using the 1990 Census. In the second part of the section, we follow synthetic arrival cohorts of immigrants and natives between the 1980 and 1990 censuses.
From page 242...
... Female immigrants from North America and Western Europe were over half of the immigrant cohorts that arrived prior to 1960. The proportion of immigrants from these countries fell significantly, especially during the 1960s and 1970s, to less than 10 percent of the arrival cohorts of the 1980s.
From page 243...
... The deficit diminishes with increases in time spent in the United States. The cohort of arrivals with six to ten years of experience, the 1980-1984 cohort, has employment rates only 4 to 6 percentage points below those of the immigrant cohorts that arrived in the 1960s and 1970s (67.3 percent for the 1980-1984 cohort relative to 71 to 73 percent for the earlier ones)
From page 244...
... 244 ca CM o~ ~o ~ ~ o CM o~ oo o~ ooo o ~ o ~ CM .
From page 246...
... . The combination of lower employment rates, fewer weeks worked, and lower hourly wages result in lower annual earnings for immigrants ($11,047 ~ compared with those of than natives ($13,243~.
From page 247...
... An earlier cohort may perform better because it has had more time to integrate into the labor market or because it arrived in the United States with better observable or unobservable skills than more recent cohorts. We refer to differences in how different immigrant cohorts may perform at all levels of experience in the United States as cohort effects and the changes related to additional time in the United States as assimilation effects.
From page 248...
... For the two outcome variables that we examine in more detail with regression analysis in the next section employment rates and the logarithm of hourly earnings and a third potentially important outcome fertility we include two additional columns so we can calculate cohort effects. The cleanest comparison of outcomes across cohorts compares immigrants of the same age and same amount of experience in the United States, but from different arrival cohorts.
From page 249...
... For example, within the 25-39 age group observed in the 1990 Census, those who arrived between 1970 and 1974 were between the ages of 5 and 23 at arrival, while those who arrived between 1980 and 1984 were between the ages of 15 and 33 at arrival. Labor Market Assimilation We begin with the measures that have been most studied for males employment rates and the logarithm of hourly earnings, shown in Tables 7-3 and 7-4, respectively.
From page 250...
... Similar calculations relative to natives are shown for each immigrant cohort. For example, the employment rate of persons aged 25-39 who arrived between 1950 and 1959 was 68.2 percent, or 2.5 percentage points below natives (-0.025 in the fourth row and first column of Table 7-3, Panel A)
From page 251...
... of Panels A and B show that more recent cohorts perform worse relative to earlier ones. Each of the arrival cohorts over the 1970s and 1980s have significantly lower employment rates relative to natives than the cohort that arrived ten years earlier, ranging from 3 to 9 percentage points.l3 13These patterns contrast with those found by Baker and Benjamin (1997)
From page 252...
... . Hourly earnings of most immigrant cohorts grew more rapidly than that of natives, although the differences are not statistically significant.
From page 253...
... , suggests that the labor market quality of immigrant cohorts has fallen continuously since the 1970s. The 1970-1974 cohort performs similarly, relative to natives, to the 1960-1964 cohort ten years earlier.
From page 254...
... Changes in these characteristics over time may explain some of the observed differences in labor market outcomes. Although we do not report the results here in a table format, we conducted comparisons of cohorts over time for educational attainment and English ability similar to those reported for employment and hourly earnings.
From page 255...
... Marital Status and Fertility The potential role of household behavior in explaining differences between labor market outcomes of native and immigrant females is seen in Tables 7-5 and 7-6. For each age group, percent married and children ever born relative to natives are shown for each arrival cohort in 1980 and 1990.
From page 256...
... The two fiveyear arrival cohorts in this group had much higher changes in fertility between 1980 and 1990 than did either natives or earlier immigrant cohorts.. The immigrant cohort that arrived between 1970 and 1974 had an initial mean number of 0.13 children more than natives in 1980, which increased to 0.35 more than natives in 1990.
From page 257...
... and (5) are calculated similarly to those shown above for employment rates and hourly earnings.
From page 258...
... For females 40-49, the differences in number of children ever born across immigrant arrival cohorts are larger, ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 additional children, and continue through the 1985-1989 cohort. ESTIMATION APPROACH We now turn to a multivariate analysis of employment and wages.
From page 259...
... Xj0I80 + TjXj~go + £ij, (1) where the vector C is a set of mutually exclusive dummy variables identifying immigrant arrival cohorts, the vector A is a set of mutually exclusive dummy variables indicating duration of U.S.
From page 260...
... These regressions, and all further regressions reported in this chapter, exclude immigrants who arrived prior to 1950, both because of the ambiguity as to when these immigrants arrived, and also because this is the only cohort to show signs of substantial attrition between the 1980 and 1990 censuses. To avoid complications that arise with immigrants who arrived as children, we also exclude all foreign-born individuals whose age and arrival cohort imply any possibility that they entered the United States prior to age 15.18 Table 7-7 reports the immigrant cohort and assimilation effects, as well as the period effects, from employment regressions that successively add control 16We experimented with indicators of labor market attachment other than employment last year, including weeks worked last year and employment or labor force participation during the census survey week.
From page 261...
... The negative coefficients indicate that, on arrival, young immigrant women from all cohorts are much less likely to work than young native women, with this employment gap ranging from 13 to 28 percentage points across arrival cohorts. In addition, the estimates imply that employment rates are similar for immigrant cohorts arriving before 1970, but jobholding has declined steadily among later cohorts.
From page 262...
... (~006) (.00 R2 .043 .045 .128 a rough indication that changes in the national origin composition of immigrant flows to the United States account for perhaps a third of the employment decline observed between pre-1970 and post-1980 cohorts of female immigrants.
From page 263...
... estimates, however, employment rates do not decline with further time spent in the United States. The final column in Table 7-7 adds controls for education, English proficiency, marital status, and children.
From page 264...
... specification, remaining employment differences between immigrant cohorts are small, with the most noticeable distinction being that 1950s and 1980s arrivals have employment rates 2-4 percentage points below those of other immigrants. With these controls for observable characteristics, the jump in immigrant employment occurring after the initial five years in the United States increases to 13 percentage points, and the subsequent employment changes that are due to assimilation are small.
From page 265...
... ~, . ~ ~ ~ p FIGURE 7-1 Estimated employment profiles for immigrant and native women.
From page 266...
... The figure also highlights the decreased labor market activity of more recent cohorts of female immigrants, with the 1970s arrivals having an employment rate about 6 percentage points below that of earlier arrivals, and the employment rate falling an additional 7 percentage points for 1980s arrivals. The bottom panel of Figure 7-1 shows that qualitatively similar patterns emerge after controlling extensively for observable characteristics.
From page 267...
... For natives, the English proficiency categories representing bilinguals who speak English "well," "not well," or "not at all" have been collapsed into a single dummy variable.
From page 268...
... (3) Immigrant Cohort: 1985-89 Arrivals -.127 -.124 -.070 (.005)
From page 269...
... does not raise employment for immigrants the way it does for natives. For purposes of comparison, we estimated similar employment regressions for men; Tables 7-9 and 7-10 and Figure 7-2 report these results.24 In contrast to the strong pattern for female immigrants of lower employment rates for more recent arrival cohorts, employment differences between cohorts of male immigrants are negligible, particularly in the column (1)
From page 270...
... Male employment rates shoot up 13 percentage 25Other analyses of the labor force activity of male immigrants have found a different pattern of cohort effects (Borjas, 1992; Fry, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c)
From page 271...
... In addition, all groups of female immigrants exhibit employment declines for more recent arrival cohorts, although the usual ordering of employment rates across cohorts is reversed for blacks and Asians when extensive control variables are introduced. In Figures 7-3 and 7-4, we present the patterns for immigrants from the most important country of origin, Mexico, for females and males.
From page 272...
... Extensive Controls 1 o.s 0.8 ct ~ 0.7 o E or 0.6 0.5 0.4 LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES OF FEMALE IMMIGRANTS h As.
From page 273...
... E o Q E 04 0.2 o B Extensive Controls 1.2 1 ~ 0.8 G E o E 0.6 0.4 0.2 O ~V\~ I _ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 T I I T I T I I 25 30 35 40 45 Age ~ ~ it.\ O~ ~~0` 50 55 60 ~V~ 1 1 1 1 - r - -- I 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Age -- -Natives ~1980s Arrivals ~1970s Armhole -X-1960s Arrivals ~1960s Arrivals 273 FIGURE 7-3 Estimated employment profiles for women: Mexican immigrants and white natives.
From page 274...
... Extensive Controls 1.2 0.8 tr ~ 0.6 0 E 0 4 0.2 LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES OF FEMALE IMMIGRANTS ~ .~ i I ~1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 r T 1 T -- ~1 -- r 1 r I T- 7 r I 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Age it_ - ~=~q O ~ I I I I I I I I I I I I i I 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Age -·-Natives ~19~ Arriv~i8 ~1970e Arrivals -X-19608 Arrivals ~19508 Arrivals FIGURE 7-4 Estimated employment profiles for men: Mexican immigrants and white natives.
From page 275...
... HOURLY EARNING REGRESSIONS We now analyze the hourly wages of female immigrants using the same approach that guided the employment analysis in the preceding section. The dependent variable is the natural logarithm of average hourly earnings in the calendar year preceding the census.
From page 276...
... After controlling for these variables, wage differences among post- 1960 immigrant cohorts shrink dramatically, and immigrants from these cohorts earn about as much as natives during their initial ten years in the United States and more than natives after labor market assimilation takes place. Female immigrants who arrived during the 1950s stand out as having the lowest wages of any cohort.28 28The low unobserved skills of the 1950-1959 cohort compared with the 1960s arrivals may explain why Long's (1980)
From page 277...
... It is adding the controls for education, English proficiency, and marital status in column (3) that compresses wage differences among immigrant cohorts arriving after 1960.
From page 278...
... For natives, the English proficiency categories representing bilinguals who speak English "well," "not well," or "not at all" have been collapsed into a single dummy variable. of male immigrants (Borjas, 1994, 1995~.
From page 279...
... Extensive Controls 3.2 2.8 3 2.6 can ° 2.4 2.2 2 1.8 279 _. ·~ 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Age ~· .~, ~ 0~ 1 1 1 1 , 1 1 1 1 1 1 ~, 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Age -·-Natives -X-1960 Arrivals 1980 Arrivals 1950 Arrivals : ~ 1970 Arrivals I FIGURE 7-5 Estimated wage profiles for immigrant and native women.
From page 280...
... In contrast to some other groups, Mexicans stand out with a very pronounced pattern of lower wages for more recent immigrant cohorts, even after controlling for observable characteristics. Moreover, wages do not grow for Mexican immigrants as they acquire experience living and working in the United States, which results in huge wage deficits relative to natives for Mexicans from all age and duration of U.S.
From page 281...
... CONCLUSION In this concluding section, we summarize our findings about the employment and wages of female immigrants and place these findings in the context of other studies that compare labor market outcomes across immigrant arrival cohorts and track changes experienced by cohorts as they adapt to life in the United States. Existing empirical research of this type focuses almost exclusively on male immigrants.
From page 282...
... For natives, the English proficiency categories representing bilinguals who speak English "well," "not well," or "not at all" have been collapsed into a single dummy variable. work than native women, whereas more recent immigrants display much lower levels of labor market attachment.
From page 283...
... Extensive Controls ~.~ 3 ~ O =.w 2 .6 2.4 2 1.8 ~ 0 ~ Boa 60 it_ .
From page 284...
... LABOR MAR:KEI OUTCOMES OF FEMALE IMMIGRANTS ·~ : : ~o~ O 2.1 - X ~ 1.9 ~X X~ ~X 25 30 35 40 45 Age B Extensive Controls 3.1 2.9 2.7 4)
From page 285...
... Extensive Controls 3.1 2.9 2.7 a) 2.5 it, 23 2.1 1.9 1.7 1.5 ·~ X -- - X ~X -- -- X ~ =~ ~ .6 ~ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Age X~ O~ ~%, ~ ~0 ~ ~ ~ I I I I I gl I I I I I I I I WAX 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Age -- -Natives ~ 1980 Arrivals ~ 1950 Arrivals -X-1 960 Arrivals ~ 1970 Arrivals _ 285 FIGURE 7-8 Estimated wage profiles for men: Mexican immigrants and white natives.
From page 286...
... residence to the next five years, and thereafter employment rates change relatively little with further exposure to America.29 Except during this period of adjustment, immigrant employment rates follow a similar age path as native employment rates. A growing body of evidence indicates that recent cohorts of foreign-born men have lower wage profiles than earlier cohorts.30 Our analysis of hourly earnings reveals a similar pattern of cohort decline for the wages of immigrant women.
From page 287...
... :897-921. Chiswick, Barry R., Yinon Cohen, and Tzippi Zach 1997 "The Labor Market Status of Immigrants: Effects of the Unemployment Rate at Arrival and Duration of Residence." Industrial and Labor Relations Review 50(2)
From page 288...
... 1996b "Labor Market Assimilation of Immigrant Women." Unpublished manuscript, The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. Smith, James P


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