طبقه بندی حرفه ای، درک ضرر مهاجران سیاه و سفید در ایالات متحده

This study examines the implications of occupational stratification and job mismatches for the welfare of children, using data from the 2005–2009 American Community Survey. The results show that Black children of immigrants have household heads that are more likely to have occupations with low SEI scores than children in US-born households. More importantly, they demonstrate that intersections between parental job-mismatches and employment in the bottom rather than upper levels of the occupational distribution have important implications for understanding poverty differences among children. Job mismatches within occupations with low SEI scores are associated with greater poverty risks among Black than White, Asian, or Hispanic children of immigrants. However, racial poverty disparities are considerably lower among children with household heads in the highest occupational strata.

Successful incorporation into the labor force is a central determinant of immigrants’ welfare and that of their families. However, as we learn from previous research, occupational outcomes are differentiated by a number of social and demographic factors. Race and human-capital characteristics are among the most important of these (Miech et al., 2003). Among immigrants, therefore, variations in race and human-capital endowments can result in associated occupational inequalities. These inequalities could in turn generate significant disparities in the social and economic welfare of their children. Notwithstanding their significance, these intricate relationships have not garnered significant attention in previous studies. However, they are of critical importance to our understanding of the socioeconomic circumstances of children in the US. One reason for this is that the children of immigrants represent a growing segment of the US child population (Landale et al., 2011). Similarly, immigration flows are now increasingly diverse, with Black immigrants making an important contribution to these trends (Rumbaut, 1994 and Capps et al., 2012). Estimates indicate, for example, that the number of Black immigrants increased by more than 300 percent in the last three decades (Kent, 2007). Recent studies further suggest that their children account for an increasing proportion of the number of children living in immigrant families (Landale et al., 2011). These changes in the racial composition of immigrant families are important. Moreover, they have created new opportunities for expanding research on how differential occupational dynamics can result in disparities in the life circumstances of the children of immigrants.