Authors
Irma Elo, Elizabeth Frankenberg, Romeo Gansey, Duncan Thomas
Publication date
2012/9
Description
The number of African-born migrants to the US has grown exponentially in recent years and they constitute the most rapidly growing group of foreign-born migrants. Relatively little is known about their labor market outcomes and even less about the heterogeneity in these outcomes by country of birth, race, and time of migration. Using 2000-2011 waves of the American Community Survey, we explore implications of country of birth, race, gender, human capital, and timing of arrival for labor market outcomes of this rapidly growing group of new Americans. By comparing African migrants with each other, we highlight their changing composition and heterogeneity, distinctions that are buried in comparisons with US-born Americans. We document considerable variation in these outcomes by country of birth that reflects differences across the African continent in levels of development, human capital, languages, cultural and racial backgrounds, and opportunities to migrate to the US Although this heterogeneity is evident among both men and women, it is more pronounced among men and is only partially explained by observed human capital and demographic characteristics.
Scholar articles
I Elo, E Frankenberg, R Gansey, D Thomas - 2012