Immigrants’ Economic Assimilation: Evidence from Longitudinal Earnings Records

Abstract

We examine immigrants’ earnings trajectories, and measure both the extent and speed with which they are able to reduce the earnings gap with natives, using a unique dataset that links respondents of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to their longitudinal earnings obtained from individual tax records. Our analysis addresses key debates regarding ethnoracial and cohort differences in immigrants’ earnings trajectories. First, we find a racially-differentiated pattern of earnings assimilation whereby black and Hispanic immigrants are less able to catch up with native whites’ earnings compared to white and Asian immigrants, but are able to almost reach earnings parity with natives of their same race and ethnicity. Second, we find no evidence of a declining “quality” of immigrant cohorts even after controlling for their ethnoracial composition and human capital. Immigrants arriving since 1994 actually experience similar or slightly higher earnings growth compared to immigrants from earlier eras. We identify a pattern of accelerated assimilation in which more educated immigrants experience much of their earnings growth during the first years after arriving.

Immigrants’ Earnings Growth and Return Migration from the U.S.: Examining their Determinants using Linked Survey and Administrative Data

“…The one race group that far exceeds the earnings of the native-born is the non-Hispanic white category. Our results are similar to that found by others; Villarreal and Tamborini (2018) find that Black and Hispanic immigrants have slower earnings assimilation than non-Hispanic White immigrants. However, these race groups are able to catch up to earnings within their own race in native-born populations over time.…”

The return-on-education gap between hispanics and non-hispanic whites

“…Although Mexican and Central American immigrants are thought to be negatively selected in terms of education (Borjas, 1987;Feliciano, 2005), recent research finds that, relative to those working in the same occupation, Mexican migrants are positively selected within their occupation (Villarreal, 2016). This is consistent with previous expectations of occupational mismatch among immigrants, whereby foreign workers often end up in jobs for which they are over-prepared (Sánchez-Soto and Singelmann, 2017;Villarreal and Tamborini, 2018;Sanroma et al, 2015). Besides the educational selectivity of immigrants, gender in-equality patterns in the labor market of the home country also influence the educational selectivity of female immigrants (Huh, 2017;Hoover and Yaya, 2010).…”

Climbing the ladder of decline: Income and acculturation associated with chronic inflammation among Mexican immigrants

“…Limited access to employment that is consistent and involves a living wage is an especially typical experience among first generation immigrant communities in the Unites States (Shor, Roelfs, & Vang, ). Immigrants' earning potential can be limited by language barriers, nontransferable job skills, and discriminatory hiring practices (Villarreal & Tamborini, ). Moreover, combined with the effects of recent and lingering global economic downturns, the health effects of financial adversity could be particularly pronounced among immigrants.…”