Workplace Concentration of Immigrants
Seth Sanders2000, SSRN Electronic Journal
Sign up for access to the world's latest research
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Abstract
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.
Related papers
Immigrant Networks and Their Implications for Occupational Choice and Wages
Review of Economics and Statistics, 2012
This paper employs United States Census data to study the occupational allocation of immigrants. The data reveal that the occupational shares of various ethnic groups have grown drastically in regional labor markets over the period 1980 to 2000. We examine the extent to which this growth can be attributed to network effects. That is, we examine the relationship between the occupational choice decision of recently arrived immigrants with those of established immigrants from the same country. We also consider the earnings implications of these immigrant networks for recent arrivals. The empirical evidence strongly suggests the operation of networks in the immigrant labor market. First, we find evidence that new arrivals are locating in the same occupations as their countrymen. Moreover, this location decision is operating at the level of regional labor markets. Second, we find that individuals who locate in the "popular" occupations of their countrymen enjoy a large and positive effect on their hourly wage and their level of weekly earnings.
Do as the neighbors do: the impact of social networks on immigrant employment
2009
Substantial immigrant segregation in the United States, combined with the increase in the share of the U.S. foreign-born population, have led to great interest in the causes and consequences of immigrant concentration, including those related to the functioning of labor markets. This paper provides robust evidence that both the size and the quality of an immigrant enclave affects the labor market outcomes of new immigrants. We develop new measures of the quality, or information value, of immigrant networks by exploiting data based on worker earnings records matched to firm and Census information. We demonstrate the importance of immigrant employment links: network members are much more likely than other immigrants to be employed in the same firm as their geographic neighbors. Immigrants living with large numbers of employed neighbors are more likely to have jobs than immigrants in areas with fewer employed neighbors. The effects are quantitatively important and robust under alternative specifications. For example, in a high value network -one with an average employment rate in the 90th percentile -a one standard deviation increase in the log of the number of contacts in the network is associated with almost a 5% increase in the employment rate. Earnings, conditional on employment, increase by about 0.7%.
Factors Shaping Workplace Segregation Between Natives and Immigrants
Demography, 2014
Research on segregation of immigrant groups is increasingly turning its attention from residential areas toward other important places, such as the workplace, where immigrants can meet and interact with members of the native population. This article examines workplace segregation of immigrants. We use longitudinal, georeferenced Swedish population register data, which enables us to observe all Demography immigrants in Sweden for the period 1990-2005 on an annual basis. We compare estimates from ordinary least squares with fixed-effects regressions to quantify the extent of immigrants' self-selection into specific workplaces, neighborhoods, and partnerships, which may bias more naïve ordinary least squares results. In line with previous research, we find lower levels of workplace segregation than residential segregation. The main finding is that low levels of residential segregation reduce workplace segregation, even after we take into account intermarriage with natives as well as unobserved characteristics of immigrants' such as willingness and ability to integrate into the host society. Being intermarried with a native reduces workplace segregation for immigrant men but not for immigrant women.
Making Connections: How Do Immigrants' Social Networks Influence Their Employment Outcomes?
2015
This paper examines the relationship between the size of local ethnic networks and immigrants’ likelihood of being self-employed in 11 metropolitan areas in the U.S. I use American Community Survey data from 2005 to 2011. A two-stage discrete choice logistic specification models agents’ decisions to have a job or not, and if so, to work for wages or be self-employed. Generally, the likelihood of being self-employed decreases with network size, but the opposite holds true for salaried employment. I also interview self-employed Hmong in Saint Paul to explore the effect immigrants’ attitudes toward different employment options have on their work outcomes. E c o n o m i c s S e n i o r H o n o r s T h e s i s Acknowledgements I would like to thank my adviser, Professor Karine Moe, for her extraordinary support this year, as well as Professor Sarah West, Professor Dianna Shandy, and Professor Gary Krueger. I would also like to thank the other honors students for their constructive commen...
Immigration, social networks, and the emergence of ethnic segmentation in a low-skill labor market
Social Science Computer Review, 2018
Postwar migration to "western" countries has gone hand in hand with the development of ethnically segmented labor markets, particularly in low-skill roles where entry requirements are minimal. While numerous theories have been forwarded as to why such situations occur, it has remained difficult to empirically test the relative impact of the many interacting processes that produce segmentation in the labor market. In this article, we investigate the processes of ethnic segmentation in low-skilled labor markets, where referral hiring is the norm, with particular reference to the role of ethnically homogeneous social networks and forms of discrimination. We employ an agent-based modeling approach, adapting key elements from Waldinger and Lichter's widely cited networked explanation of ethnic labor market segmentation. This approach allows us to provide a different lens on theories of ethnic labor market segmentation, investigating the relative impacts of different causal processes that are difficult to investigate in this way using other social science approaches. The overall results from our model indicate that ethnically homogeneous social networks have the effect of increasing the level of ethnic segmentation within a referral-based labor market, but that these networks also help immigrant populations grow and protect them from the negative impacts of employer discrimination. Furthermore, these networks have a greater impact on labor market segmentation than discrimination alone. In conclusion, this sociologically informed agent-based model provides important insights into the manner and extent in which changes in social conditions may affect population-level phenomena.
Comparative Analysis of U.S. Urban Labor Markets: Asian Immigrant Groups in New York and Los Angeles
Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 1994
This article develops a diswegute and cumpummtive approach to discern the role of immigrants in urban economies. We disaggregate Asians into four dominant subgroups, and we disaggregate gross industrial employment categories into an industrial-occupational matrix. Using a relative measure of employment, we compare industrialoccupational niches for each Asian group in two Similar urban contexts, Los Angeles and New York. Empirical finding indicate that neither the supply-side nor demand-driven perspectives on immigrants' role in urban economies sufficiently explains the complex patterns we identified. Our results suggest that the neoclassical vision of immigrants -F i g particular niches for which they "fit", by virtue of qualifications or corporate needoverlooks the possibility that immigrants may work to create their own niche or compditive advantage through managing or manipulating the system. This possibility must be explored through interviews. We suggest that interview procedures be preceded by the type of analydis conducted here, so that specific, targeted questions can be developed for the field.
Ethnic networks and employment outcomes
Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2012
Using a panel of local authority-level data in England between 2003 and 2007 and spatial statistics techniques, we find that (i) the higher the percentage of a given ethnic group living nearby, the higher the employment rate of this ethnic group; (ii) this effect decays very rapidly with distance, losing significance beyond approximately 90 minutes travel time. These results are interpreted using the network model of Calvó-Armengol and Jackson . Two results are put forward: (i) the individual probability of finding a job is increasing in the number of strong and weak ties; (ii) the longer the length of ties, the lower is this effect. Such predictions are applied to our analysis by approximating the social space by the geographical space. Ethnicity is the chosen dimension along which agents' social contacts develop and, as a result, we use ethnic population density to capture social interactions within the given ethnic group.
Smooth (er) Landing? The Dynamic Role of Networks in the Location and Occupational Choice of Immigrants
2010
How do networks influence the location and occupation decisions of immigrants? If so, is this influence long-lasting? This paper addresses these questions by analyzing immigrant flows to the United States between 1900 and 1930. We compare the distributions of immigrants both by intended and actual state of residence to counterfactual distributions constructed by allocating the national-level flows using network proxies. The distribution of immigrants by intended state of residence is most closely approximated by a distribution that allocates them where migrants of their own ethnicity, irrespective of their occupation, had settled. Meanwhile, the actual distribution of immigrants is better approximated by the location of previous immigrants of the same ethnicity and occupation, but only for the first 5 years of a migrant's stay. These results are consistent with migrants using networks as a transitory mechanism while they learn about their new labor markets and not consistent with alternatives.
Networks and Immigrants’ Economic Success∗
2016
This paper investigates how the presence of previous co-ethnic immigrants in the district of arrival affected employment opportunities, wage and human capital investment of recent immigrants to Germany. We analyze short and long run effects as we are able to follow new immigrants from their arrival in Germany over their working careers. A simple search model predicts that immigrants arriving in locations with larger co-ethnic networks are more likely to be employed after arrival. This positive effect, however, dissipates over time as those immigrants invest less in acquiring general human capital relative to those who arrived in locations with small co-ethnic networks. We match a recent survey on immigrants to Germany, which contains pre-migration information, with individual administrative panel data recording employment and earnings profiles of all workers in Germany. Applying panel analysis with a very large set of fixed effects and pre-migration controls we can isolate the causa...
Related topics
Related papers
Immigrant Job Quality and Mobility in the United States
Work and Occupations, 2004
The U.S. workforce heavily depends on immigrants. To address the role and position of non-White immigrant groups in the United States, the authors examine employment and industry patterns in the labor force, disaggregated by nativity and gender, in 1990 and 2000. The authors then look at job quality and mobility, with job quality defined by occupation, industry, and relative earnings, using 1990 and 2000 census data. Disaggregating results by race and ethnicity, nativity, and gender reveals that immigrants do not appear entirely to be stuck in low-end jobs, and arrival cohort data suggest substantial immigrant upward mobility, mainly from lower to middle but also to higher range jobs. Immigrants may experience more upward mobility than analysts sometimes conclude based on consideration of immigrants’ race and ethnicity alone and on assumptions that the experiences of new immigrants are likely to mirror those of the African American population.
Extended Abstract The Effect of Immigrants on the U . S . Labor Market : The Spatial versus the Occupational Approach
2004
The impact of immigration on the local labor market has been studied intensively in recent years, but a consensus regarding its net effect has remained elusive. Previous research (e.g., Grossman 1982; Smith and Edmonston 1997) usually finds little net effect of immigrants on local labor market outcomes. These studies frequently compare U.S. states (or sometimes metropolitan areas) with a high proportion of immigrants to those with a lower proportion. Because immigrants are geographically concentrated (Waldinger and Lee 2001), and because they tend to have fewer human capital endowments than natives (Borjas 1999), the expectation has been that areas with a higher proportion of immigrants should have lower average incomes (or lower average incomes among less educated workers) ceteris paribus. This is the spatial approach in the study of the impact of immigrants, and it usually does not find strong evidence of a significant net effect on local labor market conditions. Because empirical...
10.1177/0730888404268902WORK AND OCCUPATIONS / November 2004Bean et al. / IMMIGR NT JOB QUALITY AND MOBILITY Immigrant Job Quality and Mobility in the United States
2014
The U.S. workforce heavily depends on immigrants. To address the role and position of non-White immigrant groups in the United States, the authors examine employment and industry pat-terns in the labor force, disaggregated by nativity and gender, in 1990 and 2000. The authors then look at job quality and mobility, with job quality defined by occupation, industry, and relative earnings, using 1990 and 2000 census data. Disaggregating results by race and ethnicity, nativ-ity, and gender reveals that immigrants do not appear entirely to be stuck in low-end jobs, and arrival cohort data suggest substantial immigrant upward mobility, mainly from lower to middle but also to higher range jobs. Immigrants may experience more upward mobility than analysts sometimes conclude based on consideration of immigrants ’ race and ethnicity alone and on assumptions that the experiences of new immigrants are likely to mirror those of the African American population.
Pre-Hire Factors and Workplace Ethnic Segregation
2011
In addition to neighbourhoods of residence, family and places of work play important roles in producing and reproducing ethnic segregation. Therefore, recent research on ethnic segregation and contact is increasingly turning its attention from residential areas towards other important domains of daily interethnic contact. The key innovation of this paper is to clarify the role of immigrants' pre-hire exposure to natives in the residence, workplace and family domains in immigrant exposure to natives in their current workplace. The study is based on Swedish population register data. The results show that at the macro level, workplace neighbourhood segregation is lower than residential neighbourhood segregation. Our micro-level analysis further shows that high levels of residential exposure of immigrants to natives help to reduce ethnic segregation at the level of workplace establishments as well.
Immigrant underemployment across US metropolitan areas: From a spatial perspective
A significant number of immigrants fail to realise their full potential in the US labour markets, as evidenced by those working in occupations requiring skill levels far below their own level of education. While previous studies have studied immigrant underemployment with a focus on individual labour force characteristics, the spatial dimensions of immigrant underemployment have been largely overlooked. Using microdata from the 2006-2010 American Community Survey and a multilevel research design, this study examines the interaction of metropolitan labour market characteristics with individual labour force's underemployment experiences, and explores how these interaction effects differ between the foreign-born and the native-born. Results suggest that the probability of individual labour force's underemployment within any metropolitan area is highly contingent on metropolitan labour market characteristics including ethnic diversity, the proportion of its foreign-born population, the economic structure, and the level of educational attainment of the labour force, in addition to individual characteristics.
The Location Choice of Employment-based Immigrants among U.S. Metro Areas*
Journal of Regional Science, 2005
This paper examines the initial location choice of legal employment-based immigrants to the United States using Immigration and Naturalization Service data on individual immigrants, as well as economic, demographic, and social data to characterize the 298 metropolitan areas we define as the universal choice set. Focusing on interactions between place characteristics and immigrant characteristics, we provide multinomial logit model estimates for the location choices of about 38,000 employment-based immigrants to the United States in 1995, focusing on the top 10 source countries. We find that, as groups, immigrants from nearly all countries are attracted to large cities with superior climates, and to cities with relatively well-educated adults and high wages. We also find evidence that employment-based immigrants tend to choose cities where there are relatively few immigrants of nationalities other than their own. However, when we introduce interaction terms to account for the sociodemographic characteristics of the individual immigrants, we find that the estimated effects of location destination factors can reverse as one takes account of the age, gender, marital status, and previous occupation of the immigrants.
The Emergence of Ethnic Niches in New Immigrant Destinations: An Examination of Atlanta's Labor Market, 1980-1990
Southeastern Geographer, 2003
The entry of foreign-born workers into U.S. metropolitan labor markets was associated with a rise in ethnic niches, i.e., occupations dominated by ethnic workers. Our study examines the emergence of ethnic niches in the Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area, whose foreign-born population began to increase in the 1980s. Using the 1980 and 1990 PUMS data, we first develop an odds ratio to identify the occupational niches associated with different ethnic groups, and then examine the relative earnings of niche workers. We then compare the determinants of job earnings for niche and nonniche jobs using regression analysis. Our findings reveal a sharp ethnic segmentation of the labor force as early as in 1980. The economic advantages of niche employment vary by ethnic group, with the skill level of the job and the extent of ethnic social capital being important factors.
Measuring Ethnic Labour Market Concentration and Segmentation
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2007
Networks and Immigrants' Economic Success Networks and Immigrants' Economic Success *
2016
This paper investigates how the presence of previous co-ethnic immigrants in the district of arrival affected employment opportunities, wage and human capital investment of recent immigrants to Germany. We analyze short and long run effects as we are able to follow new immigrants from their arrival in Germany over their working careers. A simple search model predicts that immigrants arriving in locations with larger co-ethnic networks are more likely to be employed after arrival. This positive effect, however, dissipates over time as those immigrants invest less in acquiring general human capital relative to those who arrived in locations with small co-ethnic networks. We match a recent survey on immigrants to Germany, which contains pre-migration information , with individual administrative panel data recording employment and earnings profiles of all workers in Germany. Applying panel analysis with a very large set of fixed effects and pre-migration controls we can isolate the caus...
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.