Economic adaptation of immigrants : a comparative approach
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Previous studies on the effects of the context of reception on immigrant economic attainment have generally relied on information from detailed case studies. Focusing simultaneously on the characteristics of immigrant groups and the receiving society, these studies provided valuable information on the experiences of immigrants. However, they produced strikingly different accounts of the dimensions of the context that affect labor market attainment. Defining group membership by the country of birth and using multilevel modeling, I address this problem by constructing a comprehensive and systematic account of the factors affecting immigrant integration. I use data from the 2000 U.S. Census, the 2001 Canadian Census, and the New Immigrant Survey in constructing a model that explains a substantial portion of the variance in assimilation across groups. Specifically, it explains 79% of the group-level variance in earnings upon entry to the U.S. and 61% of the group-level variance in post-migration earnings growth. The model allows me to asses whether integration is shaped mainly by ethnic community resources or by external factors. Results show that ethnic community resources are more important in shaping patterns of incorporation than external conditions. The prominent ethnic community factors identified in this research are group socioeconomic advantage and ethnic concentration. However, I show that, among immigrants, the effects of ethnic community resources on earnings growth and the college wage premium are smaller in the Canadian context due to the combined effects of the differences between the countries in integration and immigration policy.I supplement these findings with a description of those groups with especially unfavorable prospects for earnings advancement, allowing me to contribute to the long-standing debate in immigration literature about the reasons for group differences in economic integration. Specifically, immigrants from certain Latin American and South East Asian countries remain economically vulnerable due to limited relative levels of both initial earnings and earnings growth. I explain the dismal integration prospects of immigrants from those groups by highlighting their disadvantages relative to immigrants from other groups in terms of socioeconomic group location and social distance.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Copyright date | 2010 |
| Publication date | 2009, c2010; 2009 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Levanon, Asaf |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Sociology. |
| Primary advisor | Grusky, David B |
| Thesis advisor | Grusky, David B |
| Thesis advisor | England, Paula |
| Thesis advisor | Snipp, C. Matthew |
| Advisor | England, Paula |
| Advisor | Snipp, C. Matthew |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Asaf Levanon. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Sociology. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2010 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2010 by Asaf Levanon
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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