Intergenerational mobility in the post-1965 immigration era: estimates by an immigrant generation cohort method

Abstract

The new second generation of the post-1965 immigration era is observed as children with their parents in 1980 and again as adults 25 years later. Intergenerational mobility is assessed for both men and women in four major racial/ethnic groups, both in regard to children's status attainment relative to parents and with regard to the rising societal standards proxied by native-born non-Hispanic whites. A profile of intergenerational mobility is prepared using multiple indicators of status attainment: high school and college completion, upper white-collar occupation, poverty, and homeownership. The immigrant generation cohort method we introduce accounts for four distinct temporal dimensions of immigrant progress, clarifying inconsistencies in the literature and highlighting differences in mobility between racial/ethnic groups and with respect to different outcome measures. The immigrant generation cohort method consistently finds greater intergenerational mobility than suggested by alternative approaches. Our analysis also shows that the intergenerational progress of women is greater than that of men and provides a more complete record of immigrant mobility overall. Findings for individual racial/ethnic groups accord with some expectations in the literature and contradict others.

Figure 1.

Intergenerational Mobility Profile Compared With Native-Born Non-Hispanic Whites, 1980 and 2005 Notes: Fitted values were derived from statistically significant coefficients. Nonsignificant coefficients were set to zero. Educational and occupational attainment models control for age. Above poverty status controls for age, sex, and marital status. Homeownership status controls for age, sex, marital status, and area homeownership.

Figure 2.

Gender Differences in Intergenerational Mobility in Educational and Occupational Attainment, 1980 and 2005 Notes: Fitted values were derived from statistically significant coefficients. Nonsignificant coefficients were set to zero. Both models control for age.