Bridges and Barriers: Earnings and Occupational Attainment Among Immigrants

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Karas compares the earnings and occupational attainment of Chinese, Cuban, Filipino, Korean, and Mexican immigrants to those of foreign-born non-Hispanic whites. Using census data, she tests three models of attainment: a human and social capital model, a local labor market model, and a model combining human capital and local labor market indicators against a baseline ethnic heritage model. She finds a double hierarchy of inequality. Asian and Hispanic immigrants are lower on socio-economic scales than foreign-born non-Hispanic whites, but Asians have higher earnings than Latinos. Ethnic differences on human and social capital factors and local labor market indicators explain the variation in socioeconomic attainments and contribute to differences in immigrant attainments. However, foreign-born non-Hispanic whites retain an advantage over the other groups even after differences in human and social capital and local labor market conditions are eliminated.