The labor market experience of female migrants: the case of temporary Mexican migration to the U.S
- PMID: 12340232
The labor market experience of female migrants: the case of temporary Mexican migration to the U.S
Abstract
PIP: This article, using a Mexican national survey, provides a profile of temporary Mexican female migrants in the US labor market. The usual association between occupational groups and wage rates does not hold up, with women in unskilled jobs averaging nearly the same wages as while collar women. The dramatic exception is private household workers, who earn less than 1/4 of the wage rates of other women. Although the distribution of wage rates across occupational groups for migrant women is not easily explained by schooling or potential work experience, wage rates seem to be positively correlated with marriage and childrearing. This is partly explained by the fact that married women are more likely to have the option of not working outside the home, and also that the labor market contacts provided by husbands may be helpful in securing more remunerative jobs. Migration networks make the region of origin in Mexico strongly correlate with wage rate variations across occupational groups for women. Although women are found to have more schooling, higher legal status, more US work experience and are more likely to come from regions with well developed migration networks than men, women average upto $7 less per day--a phenomenon largely explained by the labor market segmentation. A lack of legal status constrains women's job opportunities more than men's: over 90% of the women without entry permits are in the low paying private household sector, compared with less than 1/4 of those with some legal status. This connection between lack of proper legal status and low status jobs does not seem to prevent women from migrating illegally--more than 1/2 the women migrant studied had no legal status at all. This study concludes that women do not necessarily follow men in migration, and their labor market functions are quite distinct from those of men.
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