Durable Disadvantage: Gender and the Mark of Unauthorized Status in Immigrants’ Occupational Trajectories

Abstract

Adverse life course events associated with unemployment can negatively affect individuals’ future labor market prospects. Unauthorized status, and subsequent unauthorized employment, may operate similarly, marring immigrants’ labor market prospects even after they change legal status. However, it is unclear how and why any durable disadvantage associated with prior unauthorized status operates differently by gender. This is an important shortcoming, given that legal status and gender overlap to influence both migration and stratification. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of lawful permanent residents, we find durable disadvantage associated with prior exposure to unauthorized status, especially among women. Men with prior exposure to unauthorized status experience persistent occupational disadvantage over time relative to men who were never unauthorized. However, women with exposure to unauthorized status experience widening occupational disadvantage over time relative to women who were never unauthorized. Human capital and legal processes help to explain this pattern.

Sex- and gender-based differences in the migration process: a systematic literature review

“…The durable disadvantage resulting from being un-documented prior to authorization also varies by gender. Kreisberg and Jackson (2023) confirm that women have a smaller disadvantage when undocumented than men compared to their documented counterparts, while their predicted durable disadvantage after authorization widens rather than persisting as it does for men. Explanations for this observation can be different depending on the legal pathways and human capital.…”

“…While reviewing the literature on sex-and gender-based differences in the post-migration stage, it crystallized that the gender gaps in occupational status persist after granting legal status to migrants as women are more likely to stay employed in the informal sector (Kreisberg & Jackson, 2023;Donato, Wakabayashi, Hakimzadeh, & Armenta, 2008). Moreover, migrant women experience a double disadvantage on the labor market in some countries -a penalty on their earnings for being a woman as well as for having migrant status (Ryazantsev, Rostovskaya, & Peremyshlin, 2019;.…”