Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Dec;103(2):655-680.
doi: 10.1093/sf/soae078. Epub 2024 Jun 4.

First- and Second-Generation Women's Economic Assimilation: An Analysis of Longitudinal Earnings Records

Andrés Villarreal  1 , Christopher R Tamborini  2
Affiliations

First- and Second-Generation Women's Economic Assimilation: An Analysis of Longitudinal Earnings Records

Andrés Villarreal et al. Soc Forces. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Research on the economic assimilation of immigrants and their descendants has dispropor tionately focused on men. In this study, we examine the life-course employment and earnings trajectories of first- and second-generation women using a restricted-use dataset linking individual respondents of the Current Population Survey (CPS) to their tax earnings records We compare the age-specific probability of employment and annual earnings of women of each immigrant generation by race and ethnicity from early to middle adulthood covering a span of 20 years. We consider alternative explanations for observed disparities including differences in the level of education and the timing and response to childbearing. Our analyses reveal distinct patterns across immigrant generations and ethnoracial groups. We find that first- and second-generation women are assimilating economically at a fast pace although significant ethnoracial differences remain. First-generation Hispanic women in particular experience low employment and earnings growth. Second-generation women have higher employment rates than later-generation Whites and avoid the dip in employment trajectories in early and middle adulthood experienced by the latter group. The higher employment rates of second-generation women cannot be fully explained by differences in educational attainment or the presence of young children.

Keywords: Immigrant economic assimilation; Immigrant women’s earnings; Immigrant women’s employment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Employment and median earnings trajectories for first- and second-generation women by race and ethnicity (three-year moving average).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Difference in the predicted probability of employment for first- and second-generation women relative to third-plus generation White women by level of education based on results from random-effects models.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Difference in the predicted probability of employment for first- and second-generation women relative to third-plus generation White women based on results from random-effects models with and without controls for children under age 6 in household.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Ratio of predicted earnings relative to third-plus generation White women for first- and second-generation women by level of education based on random-effects models.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Ratio of predicted earnings of first- and second-generation women relative to third-plus generation White women based on results from random-effects models with and without controls for children under age 6 in household.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alon Sigal and Haberfeld Yitchak 2007. “Labor Force Attachment and the Evolving Wage Gap between White, Black, and Hispanic Young Women.” Work and Occupations 34(4):369–98. 10.1177/0730888407307247. - DOI
    1. Antecol Heather 2000. “An Examination of Cross-Country Differences in the Gender Gap in Labor Force Participation Rates.” Labour Economics 7(4):409–26. 10.1016/S0927-5371(00)00007-5. - DOI
    1. Apgar Lauren and Patricia A. McManus 2019. “Cultural Persistence and Labor Force Participation among Partnered Second-Generation Women in the United States.” Social Forces 98(1):211–44. 10.1093/sf/soy104. - DOI
    1. Bean Frank D., Brown Susan K. and Bachmeier James D. 2015. Parents without Papers: The Progress and Pitfalls of Mexican American Integration. New York: Russell Sage.
    1. Bean Frank D., Leach Mark A., Brown Susan K., Bachmeier James D. and Hipp John R. 2011. “The Educational Legacy of Unauthorized Migration: Comparisons across U.S.-Immigrant Groups in How Parents’ Status Affects Their Offspring.” International Migration Review 45(2):348–85. 10.1111/j.1747-7379.2011.00851.x. - DOI - PubMed