In the context of continuing influxes of large numbers of immigrants to the United States, urban labor market segmentation along the lines of race/ethnicity, gender, and class has drawn considerable growing attention. Using a confidential dataset extracted from the United States Decennial Long Form Data 2000 and a multilevel regression modeling strategy, this paper presents a case study of Chinese immigrants in the San Francisco metropolitan area. Correspondent with the highly segregated nature of the labor market as between Chinese immigrant men and women, different socioeconomic characteristics at the census tract level are significantly related to their occupational segregation. This suggests the social process of labor market segmentation is contingent on the immigrant geography of residence and workplace. With different direction and magnitude of the spatial contingency between men and women in the labor market, residency in Chinese immigrant concentrated areas is perpetuating the gender occupational segregation by skill level. Whereas abundant ethnic resources may exist in ethnic neighborhoods and enclaves for certain types of employment opportunities, these resources do not necessarily help Chinese immigrant workers, especially women, to move upward along the labor market hierarchy.
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Industrial Concentration of Ethnic Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses in the United States
June 2013
Working Paper Number:
CES-13-34
The number of ethnic minority and women-owned businesses has increased rapidly during the past few decades. However, the characteristics of these businesses and their owners differ by race, ethnicity, and gender. Using a confidential national survey of ethnic minority and women-owned businesses in the United States, this study examines ethnic minority- and women-owned businesses segmented by industrial sectors. Consistent with gender occupational segregation, male- and female- owned businesses have distinctive sectoral concentration patterns, with ethnic minority women- owned businesses highly concentrated in a limited number of industrial sectors. However, the relationship between business sectoral concentration and business performance is not uniform across ethnic and gender groups. Concentration in specific industrial sectors does not necessarily mean poor performance when measured by sales, size of employment or payrolls. However, for women-owned businesses, those sectors obviously pay less and have marginal profits, especially if considering the size of the firms.
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A Warm Embrace or the Cold Shoulder: Wage and Employment Outcomes in Ethnic Enclaves
April 2008
Working Paper Number:
CES-08-09
This paper examines how immigrant enclaves influence labor market outcomes. We examine the effect of ethnic concentration on both immigrant earnings and employment in high immigration states using the non-public use, 1-in-6 sample of the 2000 U.S. Census. Although we find that there is some variability in the estimated enclave effects, they exhibit an overall negative impact. Male and female immigrants from several ethnic groups tend to earn lower wages when residing in areas with larger ethnic concentrations. Similarly, for employment, most of the statistically significant effects are negative, although much smaller than the enclave impacts on earnings.
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WHY IMMIGRANTS LEAVE NEW DESTINATIONS AND WHERE DO THEY GO?
June 2013
Working Paper Number:
CES-13-32
Immigrants have a markedly higher likelihood of migrating internally if they live in new estinations. This paper looks at why that pattern occurs and at how immigrants' out-migration to new versus traditional destinations responds to their labor market economic and industrial structure, nativity origins and concentration, geographic region, and 1995 labor market type. Confidential data from the 2000 and 1990 decennial censuses are used for the analysis. Metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas are categorized into 741 local labor markets and classified as new or traditional based on their nativity concentrations of immigrants from the largest Asian, Caribbean and Latin American origins. The analysis showed that immigrants were less likely to migrate to new destinations if they lived in areas of higher nativity concentration, foreign-born population growth, and wages but more likely to make that move if they were professionals, agricultural or blue collar workers, highly educated, fluent in English, and lived in other new destinations. While most immigrants are more likely to migrate to new rather than traditional destinations that outcome differs sharply for immigrants from different origins and for some immigrants, particularly those from the Caribbean, the dispersal process to new destinations has barely started.
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Foreign-Born Out-Migration from New Destinations: The Effects of Economic Conditions and Nativity Concentration
April 2010
Working Paper Number:
CES-10-09
Immigrants living in new destinations in 1995 were 2.5 times more likely to undertake a labor market migration by 2000 as those living in traditional places. This paper looks at two competing explanations for immigrants' differential secondary migration, namely nativity concentration versus labor market context. Utilizing confidential Census data for 1990 and 2000, we examine out-migration from 741 labor markets that cover the entire country and develop new destination classifications specific to the growth and composition patterns of foreign-born from the largest Asian, Latin American and Caribbean foreign-born groups, and Canadians. The hypothesis guiding the analysis was that immigrants would be less likely to leave labor markets that have both robust economic conditions and high levels of compatriot affinity as measured by nativity concentration. The combined and group models provide strong support for the argument that immigrant's out-migration decisions respond both to local labor market economic conditions and compatriot availability, net of human capital and national origin.
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Associations Between Public Housing and Individual Earnings in New Orleans
October 2015
Working Paper Number:
CES-15-32
This study uses a sample of the civilian labor force aged 16-64 constructed from the Decennial Census and American Community Survey, along with data from the HUD dataset Picture of Subsidized Households, to compare the likelihood for job earnings in relation to public housing developments in the New Orleans MSA before and after Hurricane Katrina. Results from a series of hierarchical linear models (HLM) indicate significant relationships are altered between time periods, including those from public and mixed-income developments, suggesting a fluid relationship between neighborhoods and economic outcomes during physical, demographic and economic restructuring.
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Spatial Influences on the Employment of U.S. Hispanics: Spatial Mismatch, Discrimination, or Immigrant Networks?
January 2009
Working Paper Number:
CES-09-03
Employment rates of Hispanic males in the United States are considerably lower than employment rates of whites. In the data used in this paper, the Hispanic male employment rate is 61 percent, compared with 83 percent for white men.1 The question of the employment disadvantage of Hispanic men likely has many parallels to the question of the employment disadvantage of black men, where factors including spatial mismatch, discrimination, and labor market networks have all received attention as contributing factors. However, the Hispanic disadvantage has been much less studied, and the goal of this paper is to bridge that gap. To that end, we present evidence that tries to assess which of the three factors listed above appears to contribute to the lower employment rate of Hispanic males. We focus in particular on immigrant Hispanics and Hispanics who do not speak English well.
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Spatial Mismatch or Racial Mismatch?
June 2007
Working Paper Number:
CES-07-16
We contrast the spatial mismatch hypothesis with what we term the racial mismatch hypothesis - that the problem is not a lack of jobs, per se, where blacks live, but a lack of jobs into which blacks are hired, whether because of discrimination or labor market networks in which race matters. We first report new evidence on the spatial mismatch hypothesis, using data from Census Long-Form respondents. We construct direct measures of the presence of jobs in detailed geographic areas, and find that these job density measures are related to employment of black male residents in ways that would be predicted by the spatial mismatch hypothesis - in particular that spatial mismatch is primarily an issue for low-skilled black male workers. We then look at racial mismatch, by estimating the effects of job density measures that are disaggregated by race. We find that it is primarily black job density that influences black male employment, whereas white job density has little if any influence on their employment. This evidence implies that space alone plays a relatively minor role in low black male employment rates.
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HUMAN CAPITAL TRAPS? ENCLAVE EFFECTS USING LINKED EMPLOYER-HOUSEHOLD DATA
June 2013
Working Paper Number:
CES-13-29
This study uses linked employer-household data to measure the impact of immigrant social networks, as identified via neighborhood and workplace affiliation, on immigrant earnings. Though ethnic enclaves can provide economic opportunities through job creation and job matching, they can also stifle the assimilation process by limiting interactions between enclave members and non-members. I find that higher residential and workplace ethnic clustering among immigrants is consistently correlated with lower earnings. For immigrants with a high school education or less, these correlations are primarily due to negative self-selection. On the other hand, self-selection fails to explain the lower earnings associated with higher ethnic clustering for immigrants with post-secondary schooling. The evidence suggests that co-ethnic clustering has no discernible effect on the earnings of immigrants with lower education, but may be leading to human capital traps for immigrants who have more than a high school education.
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Workplace Concentration of Immigrants
November 2010
Working Paper Number:
CES-10-39R
To what extent do immigrants and the native-born work in separate workplaces? Do worker and employer characteristics explain the degree of workplace concentration? We explore these questions using a matched employer-employee database that extensively covers employers in selected MSAs. We find that immigrants are much more likely to have immigrant coworkers than are natives, and are particularly likely to work with their compatriots. We find much higher levels of concentration for small businesses than for large ones, that concentration varies substantially across industries, and that concentration is particularly high among immigrants with limited English skills. We also find evidence that neighborhood job networks are strongly positively associated with concentration. The effects of networks and language remain strong when type is defined by country of origin rather than simply immigrant status. The importance of these factors varies by immigrant country of origin'for example, not speaking English well has a particularly strong association with concentration for immigrants from Asian countries. Controlling for differences across MSAs, we find that observable employer and employee characteristics account for about half of the difference between immigrants and natives in the likelihood of having immigrant coworkers, with differences in industry, residential segregation and English speaking skills being the most important factors.
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Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes
October 2005
Working Paper Number:
CES-05-23
We use a novel dataset and research design to empirically detect the effect of social interactions among neighbors on labor market outcomes. Specifically, using Census data that characterize residential and employment locations down to the city block, we examine whether individuals residing in the same block are more likely to work together than those in nearby blocks. We find evidence of significant social interactions operating at the block level: residing on the same versus nearby blocks increases the probability of working together by over 33 percent. The results also indicate that this referral effect is stronger when individuals are similar in sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., both have children of similar ages) and when at least one individual is well attached to the labor market. These findings are robust across various specifications intended to address concerns related to sorting and reverse causation. Further, having determined the characteristics of a pair of individuals that lead to an especially strong referral effect, we provide evidence that the increased availability of neighborhood referrals has a significant impact on a wide range of labor market outcomes including employment and wages.
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