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Title: Migrants from a Different Shore: Economic Assimilation of Immigrants from China in the United States

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: Since China began its reform and opening-up policy in 1978, migration from China to the U.S. has grown significantly. Using 1990, 2000 censuses and a 2010 survey, I examine how immigrants from China fare in the U.S. labor market. Since 1990, relative wages of immigrants from China have been escalating in contrast to other immigrants. I show these widening gaps are largely explained by individuals endowments, mostly education. Not only the countrys immigrants had economically overtaken other immigrants in 2000, but its new cohorts outperformed the old ones since 1980. The evidence of soaring U.S.-earned degrees by immigrants from China can account for this relatively successful economic assimilation. In the meantime, economic outcomes of immigrants from LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) have been worsening and the deterioration is substantially attributable to the sluggish rise in the educational attainment. The diverse experiences of immigrants from China and LAC show that education plays the major role in the process of economic assimilations in the U.S.

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Authors: Lin, Carl

Publisher: Beijing Normal University and IZA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

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