Full Citation
Title: Race, Immigration and Income: The Brazilian Case Economic Outcomes for Afro-Brazilians in the United States
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2011
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Abstract: Since the 1980s, a relatively new phenomenon of Brazilian immigration to North America has emerged. According to the U.S. Census, the number of foreign-born Brazilians in the United States grew from 212,428 in 2000 to 332,632 in 2008. Brazilian government sources place the number of Brazilians in the U.S. as high as 1.1 million. It is widely cited that the initial increase in Brazilian migration revolves around the weakness of the Brazilian economy in the 1980s and 90s. This study assesses the labor market outcomes of black Brazilian immigrants to the United States compared to their white Brazilian immigrant counterparts. It also compares the difference in earnings between these two groups to the differences in earnings between black and white native-born U.S. citizens. Using pooled cross sectional data from the 2000 U.S. Census and the American Community Survey from 2001 to 2008, I examine which race/nativity, demographic, and human capital variables contribute most the economic disparities between blacks and whites born in the U.S. and in Brazil. The results show that Afro-Brazilians do make considerably less on average than their white Brazilian counterparts but the human capital variables account for most of this disparity. It also shows that the difference in earnings between Brazilians of different races is not a wide as that between U.S. American blacks and whites. This is one of the first studies, to my knowledge, which focuses on labor market outcomes for Afro-Brazilians in the U.S. With stronger and more accurate Census data, more conclusions could be made about this growing population.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Clarke, Mateo
Periodical (Full): Student Journal of Latin American Studies
Issue: 2
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Pages: 6-16
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Other, Race and Ethnicity
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