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Labor Market Assimilation of Immigrant Women

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  • Robert F. Schoeni

Abstract

Using 1970, 1980, and 1990 U.S. census data, the author examines the life-cycle patterns of immigrant women's labor force participation. He finds that the cross-sectional approach that has been used in all previous studies leads to a substantial over-estimate of the degree to which immigrant women's assimilation increases their labor force participation. The effect of assimilation found by using the cohort approach, however (which acknowledges the possibility that patterns of labor force participation partly reflect the year of immigration), is still sizable. The effect is concentrated within the first 10 years after arrival. There are substantial differences in participation and assimilation by country of birth. Immigrants from Japan, Korea, and China are found to have experienced the greatest degree of assimilation, with an effect that raises the probability of working by 20 percentage points during the first 10 years after arriving in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert F. Schoeni, 1998. "Labor Market Assimilation of Immigrant Women," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(3), pages 483-504, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:51:y:1998:i:3:p:483-504
    DOI: 10.1177/001979399805100307
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    2. A. Zaiceva, 2007. "East-West migration and gender: Is there a "double disadvantage" vis- -vis stayers?," Working Papers 608, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2011. "Migration, Ethnicity and Economic Integration," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume III, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Neeraj Kaushal & Yao Lu & Nicole Denier & Julia Shu-Huah Wang & Stephen J. Trejo, 2016. "Immigrant employment and earnings growth in Canada and the USA: evidence from longitudinal data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1249-1277, October.
    5. Duleep, Harriet & Dowhan, Daniel J., 2002. "Revisiting the Family Investment Model with Longitudinal Data: The Earnings Growth of Immigrant and U.S.-Born Women," IZA Discussion Papers 568, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2012. "The Employment of Low-Skilled Immigrant Men in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 549-554, May.
    7. Roberto Pedace & Christine DuBois, 2012. "Immigration policy and employment assimilation in the United States," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(36), pages 4721-4730, December.
    8. Deborah Cobb-Clark & Marie D. Connolly & Christopher Worswick, 2000. "Does the Family Investment Hypothesis Explain Immigrant Labor Market Activity?," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0828, Econometric Society.
    9. Sukanya Basu, 2018. "Age-of-Arrival Effects on the Education of Immigrant Children: A Sibling Study," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 474-493, September.
    10. Zaiceva, Anzelika, 2010. "East-West migration and gender: Is there a differential effect for migrant women?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 443-454, April.
    11. Deborah Cobb-Clark & Steven Stillman, 2008. "Emigration and the Age Profile of Retirement Among Immigrants," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 0815, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin).
    12. Smolny, Werner & Rieber, Alexander, 2016. "Labour market integration of immigrants - Evidence for the German guest workers," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145629, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

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