Immigrants and Passive Representation in the U.S. Public Service: 2000-2018

Abstract

Representative bureaucracy has been a prominent construct in U.S. governance literature for more than three quarters of a century. Passive representation is an important first step toward active representation. Using a repeated cross-sectional design, we find that immigrant status and accompanying multigenerational effects impact the likelihood of employment in the public sector. The barrier of immigrant status and multigenerational effects are likely compounded by the educational achievement barrier associated with growing professionalism in the public sector.