The Economic Assimilation of African Immigrants in the United States
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9953770 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Petros Tesfazion (US Department of Defense, corresponding author), Yaqin Su (0000-0003-2840-646X, Hunan University China) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 115-133 |
| Publication date | 2019-02-18 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Migration (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7985 • E-ISSN: 1468-2435 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/imig.12562 |
| OpenAlex | W2916927066 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
This article examines the puzzle that the earnings of African immigrants do not match their high qualifications in terms of educational attainment. We apply cohort analysis to compare the economic assimilation patterns of black African immigrants with that of black non‐African immigrants. We find results that are consistent with the idea that the lower earnings of African immigrants are due to greater difficulty with skill transferability. Africans face substantially lower earnings at entry than black natives and black non‐African immigrants, although they close a substantial part of the initial earnings gap over time. Moreover, the earnings gap at entry has narrowed for recent cohorts; and Africans who migrate during childhood and those with no college education face no disadvantage. We also find similar patterns of assimilation in labour supply and participation in welfare programmes, which indicate that Africans face greater challenges at entry but assimilate at a faster rate
Demographic economics · Disadvantage · Earnings · Economic growth · Economics · Educational attainment · Human capital · Immigration · Labour economics · Political science · Transferability · Welfare · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
Essays and data on American ethnic groups
Immigrants and Human-Capital Investment
Assimilation and Changes in Cohort Quality Revisited
Networks in the Modern Economy
Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants
Immigration and Welfare Magnets
Welfare reform and immigrant fertility
The Gradient of Immigrant Age-at-Arrival Effects on Socioeconomic Outcomes in the U.S
The Socioeconomic Attainment Patterns of Africans in the United States
Age-at-Arrival's Effects on Asian Immigrants’ Socioeconomic Outcomes in Canada and the U.S
The Effect of Americanization on the Earnings of Foreign-born Men
Immigrant Participation in the Welfare System
The Economic Incorporation of Immigrants in 18 Western Societies
Black Immigrants in the United States
Assimilation Differences among Africans in America
Africans in the diaspora
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |