Secondary earner strategies and family poverty: immigrant-native differentials, 1960-1980

Abstract

"This article studies immigrant-native differentials in the ability of secondary earners (family earners other than the family head) to lift families out of poverty. Using both descriptive and multivariate techniques to analyze the 1960, 1970 and 1980 U.S. Census Public Use Samples, it compares immigrant and native families among four key race groups: white, black, Hispanic and Asian. It is shown that the ameliorative impact of secondary earners is greater for immigrant than native families; that this generalization holds for whites, blacks and Hispanics but not Asians; and that the immigrant advantage in ameliorative effects vis-a-vis natives declined noticeably over the 1960-1980 period for all but Asian families. The implications of these results for the overall trend in poverty among immigrants is discussed."