INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW

United States of America (Staten Island) 11

1998 - VOLUME 32, NUMBER 1

99.11.1 - English - Susan BLANK, University of California, Irvine (U.S.A.), and Ramon S. TORRECILHA, Social Science Research Council (U.S.A.)

Understanding the living arrangements of Latino immigrants: A life course approach (p. 3-19)

Using data from the 1990 Panel Study of Income Dynamics Latino Sample, this study examines three competing hypotheses for understanding extended family living among Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants. The findings indicate no significant relationship between living with extended kin and cultural indicators -- such as English fluency -- or economic factors -- such as employment and income. Rather, the data support a life course explanation. Extended family living arrangements among Latino immigrants represent a resource generating strategy for caring for young children and older adults. Differences in age, relative location in the life course, and migration opportunities inform group variation in extended living arrangements for Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants. These findings verify patterns of household composition among Latino immigrants suggested by nonrandom, ethnographic samples. (UNITED STATES, CENTRAL AMERICA, IMMIGRANTS, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION, EXTENDED FAMILY, LIFE CYCLE)

99.11.2 - English - Mary G. POWERS and William SELTZER, Fordham University (U.S.A.)

Occupational status and mobility among undocumented immigrants by gender (p. 21-55)

This article addresses two issues concerning about the integration and mobility of undocumented immigrants in the United States: 1) whether undocumented men and women improve their earnings and occupational status over time and 2) the extent of variation in occupational status and mobility by gender and region. Data from the 1989 Legalized Population Survey indicate that both undocumented men and women, on average, improved their earnings and occupational status between their first jobs in the United States and their jobs just prior to application for legalization under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. The earnings, occupational status, and occupational mobility of men were greater than for women, however. (UNITED STATES, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, INTEGRATION, OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY, SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS)

99.11.3 - English - Robert F. SCHOENI, RAND (U.S.A.)

Labor market outcomes of immigrant women in the United States: 1970 to 1990 (p. 57-77)

Forty-two percent of immigrant workers in the United States are women, yet almost all of the evidence on the economic performance of immigrants is based on analyses of men. This study begins to fill the void by examining differences in a wide array of labor market outcomes between U.S.-born and immigrant women, and among immigrant women born in different countries or regions of the world, using the 1970, 1980 and 1990 censuses. Immigrant women were less likely to participate in the labor force, and this gap increased to 7 percentage points by 1990. However, the share of self-employed and the number of weeks and hours worked among employed women were roughly the same for immigrants and natives throughout the 1970-1990 period. The gap in unemployment and weekly wages widened in favor of natives between 1970 and 1990, with a gap in median wages of 14% in 1990. However, immigrants born in the United Kingdom and Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, and the Middle East have had steady or improved wages and unemployment relative to U.S.-born women. At the same time, immigrants from Mexico and Central America, who now represent one-quarter of all immigrant women, have experienced relatively high unemployment and low earnings, and these differences have increased, with the wage gap reaching 35% in 1990. Disparities in completed years of schooling can explain a substantial share of the differences in labor market outcomes. (UNITED STATES, IMMIGRANTS, WOMEN, LABOUR MARKET, WAGE LEVEL, HOURS OF WORK, UNEMPLOYMENT)

99.11.4 - English - Alberto DÁVILA, José A. PAGÁN, The University of Texas-Pan American (U.S.A.), and Montserrat Viladrich GRAU, Universidad Pública de Navarra (Spain)

The impact of IRCA on the job opportunities and earnings of Mexican-American and Hispanic-American workers (p. 79-95)

This article studies the earnings gap between Mexican, Hispanic and non-Hispanic white male workers resulting from changes in both the wage structure and immigration laws that occurred during the 1980s. Our results suggest that Mexican and Hispanic workers were adversely affected by these two changes. Using data from the 1980 and 1990 One Percent Public Use Microdata Samples, we show that these "at-risk" workers minimized the negative impact of the increases in the returns to skill by gaining in the non-Hispanic white residual wage distribution. We conclude that at-risk workers increased their work effort to lessen the effects of Act-induced employment losses. Using 1983-1992 data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and EEOC data for this period, we provide support for this contention. (UNITED STATES, IMMIGRANT WORKERS, WAGE LEVEL, DEVIATION, IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION)

99.11.5 - English - Cecilia MENJÍVAR, Arizona State University (U.S.A.), Julie DAVANZO, RAND Corporation (U.S.A.), Lisa GREENWELL, California State University, Fullerton (U.S.A.), and R. Burciaga VALDEZ, UCLA School of Public Health (U.S.A.)

Remittance behavior among Salvadoran and Filipino immigrants in Los Angeles (p. 97-126)

This article analyzes the factors that influence remittance behavior (the decision to remit and the amount sent) in the host country of Filipino and Salvadoran immigrants, two groups with high rates of U.S.-bound migration and of remittances. Data for this study come from a multipurpose survey fielded in Los Angeles in 1991 and are analyzed using logistic regressions and OLS. Individual characteristics and financial ability to remit, motivation to migrate, personal investments in the United States, and family obligations in the home and in the host countries are hypothesized to affect remittance behavior. No differences by country of origin in the proportion who send remittances were found, but there were significant dffferences in the amount remitted. Some variables affect the two country-of-origin groups differently. The size of remittances sent by Salvadorans tends to be relatively insensitive to their characteristics compared with Filipinos. Filipinos' remittances are more affected by age, family income, having taken English classes in the United States, and living alone than are the remittances of Salvadorans. For both groups, the most consistent factors affecting remittances are family income and the place of residence of close family members. (UNITED STATES, PHILIPPINES, EL SALVADOR, IMMIGRANTS, REMITTANCES, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS)

99.11.6 - English - Mark ELLIS, University of California, Los Angeles (U.S.A.), and Richard WRIGHT, Dartmouth College (U.S.A.)

When immigrants are not migrants: Counting arrivals of the foreign born using the U.S. census (p. 127-144)

This paper compares characteristics of recent immigrant arrivals in the United States using two measures from the decennial U.S. census: the came-to-stay question and the migration question. We show that a little under 30% of immigrants who reported they came to stay between 1985-1990 on the 1990 U.S. Census Public Use Micro Sample were resident in the United States on April 1, 1985. A similar analysis of the 1980 census reveals that 22% of immigrants who reported they came to stay between 1975-1980 lived in the United States on April 1, 1975. Thus among recent arrivals, defined as those who reported they came to stay in the quinquennium preceding the census, a large number were resident in the United States five years before the census date. Furthermore, the proportion of recent arrivals present in the United States five years before the census increased between 1975-1980 and 1985-1990. We show that the profile of recent arrivals is sensitive to their migration status. Generally, in both the 1975-1980 and 1985-1990 cohorts, those resident in the United States five years before the census have significantly less schooling and lower incomes than those who were abroad. Accordingly, we argue that estimates of the skill levels and hourly wages of recent arrivals to the United States vary with the way arrival is measured. Researchers who rely on Public Use samples of the U.S. census for their data should be aware that the year of entry question implies a broader definition of arrival than the migration question. We caution that immigration researchers should consider the idea of arrival more carefully to help distinguish newcomers from the resident foreign born. (UNITED STATES, MIGRATION MEASUREMENT, INTERCENSAL MIGRATION, MIGRATION HISTORY, RETURN MIGRATION, FINAL MIGRATION)

99.11.7 - English - Karen A. WOODROW-LAFIELD, Mississippi State University (U.S.A.)

Undocumented residents in the United States in 1990: Issues of uncertainty in quantification (p. 145-173)

Censuses and national surveys are monitoring net immigration to the United States as the 20th century closes with high immigration reminiscent of the early decades. These demographic studies inferred the legal-undocumented composition for census and national survey estimates for the foreign-born population. For both net immigration and that portion attributable as net legal immigration, an increasing trend is evident since 1970. Uncertainties are abundant about the measurement of net undocumented migration and change over the past two decades. This analysis presents possible upper and lower boundaries on components for estimating legal migration in 1980-1989 and on the foreignborn population in 1990. Positing ranges for net undocumented immigration; between 2 million and 4 million undocumented residents may have been counted in the 1990 census. The total number of undocumented residents may have been as high as 6 million. To more narrowly specify these ranges, greater exercise of judgment would be necessary but not sufficient. (UNITED STATES, IILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, INTERCENSAL ESTIMATES)

99.11.8 - English - James E. COUGHLAN, James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville (Australia)

Occupational mobility of Australia's Vietnamese community: Its direction and human capital determinants (p. 175-201)

This article provides a cross-sectional cohort analysis of recent Australian census data and data collected from a 1990-91 nonrandom sample of 450 Vietnamese households in Melbourne, Australia, to determine the level of occupational mobility within the Vietnamese Australian community. The analysis reveals that there has been little net upward occupational mobility within the Vietnam-born community, although there has been some individual upward mobility. Regression analysis of the survey data reveal that no one variable stands out as explaining occupational mobility within Melbourne's Vietnamese community, and no variables relating to socioeconomic status or class in Vietnam are among the main explanators of Vietnamese occupational mobility in Australia. (AUSTRALIA, VIET NAM, IMMIGRANTS, OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY)

99.11.9 - English - Ted PERLMUTTER, New York University (U.S.A.)

The politics of proximity: The Italian response to the Albanian crisis (p. 203-222)

This article focuses on the apparent disjunction between the Italian reluctance to allow Albanians to come as refugees and Italy's enthusiastic leadership of the United Nations military-humanitarian mission. It explains the Italian response both in terms of Italian popular opinion regarding Albanians and Italy's concern for the impression on Europe that its politics would make. Italy's leadership of the mission represents the first time a medium-sized power has assisted a neighboring country with whom it has had deep historical connections. The conclusion argues that such proximate interventions are likely to increase in the future, and spells out the implications of the Italian case. (ITALY, ALBANIA, FOREIGN AID, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, REFUGEES, CONFLICTS)

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