Earnings attainment of immigrants in the USA: the effects of race, gender, and place of birth

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of race, gender, and region of birth by assessing the earnings of blacks and whites from Africa, blacks from the Americas, whites from Europe and Asians from Asia.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing, different income levels were used to see if there were any variations in earnings. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the odds of earnings at the various percentiles of the income of white African men, controlling for the human capital resources and other demographic variables.

Findings

The paper finds an unambiguous race effect among male workers. White males from both Africa and Europe have significant advantage over non‐white male workers from Africa, the Americas, and Asia. However, the earnings attainment is more favorable to white African males regardless of income levels. Further, a gender effect is also found in that relative to the earnings of white African‐born males, all the female workers in our study had lower odds at all the earning percentiles regardless of race and region of origin.

Originality/value

This paper helps clarify the issue of gender and stratification as it relates to immigrants in the USA.

Citation

Moore, A.R., Amey, F. and Bessa, Y. (2009), "Earnings attainment of immigrants in the USA: the effects of race, gender, and place of birth", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 28 No. 6, pp. 500-512. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150910980792