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INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Spring 2000, Vol. 34, No. 1
Japan and labor migration: Theoretical and methodological implications of negative cases.
Migration scholars have frequently emphasized the tremendous increase in international migration in recent years. But several advanced industrial countries -- Japan in particular -- have relatively small numbers of foreign workers. Most of the literature on labor migration relates only to "positive cases", i.e., countries that have actually experienced significant inflows of foreign workers. This article proposes considering Japan as a "negative case" of labor migration in the post-World War II period. There has been much recent interest in the growing numbers of foreign workers in Japan, but what is most interesting about Japan is the fact that the numbers are relatively small (as a percentage of the labor force) and that they began to increase so late, in comparison to other countries. The main goal of the paper is to advocate consideration of negative cases in migration research; a proper theory of labor migration would distinguish between positive and negative cases.
(JAPAN, LABOUR MIGRATION, METHODOLOGY, THEORY, INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, FOREIGN WORKERS).
English - pp. 5-32.
D. Bartram, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
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The labor market performance of European immigrants in New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s.
Ever since New Zealand became a British colony in 1840, it has attracted considerable numbers of European migrants. In the 1996 Population Census, 80% of the 3.6 million New Zealand residents claim European ethnic descent. While European immigration always has been, and continues to be, dominated by the UK, some noticeable Dutch immigration took place since 1950. Beginning in the 1960s, the overall share of European migration started a downward trend, with more and more immigrants arriving from the Pacific Islands and Asia.
(NEW ZEALAND, EUROPE, IMMIGRANTS, MIGRATION TRENDS, ETHNIC ORIGIN).
English - pp. 33-58.
R. Winkelmann, IZA, Bonn, Germany.
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Relative success of male workers in the host country, Kuwait: Does the channel of migration matter?
A survey of 800 South Asian males employed in skilled or unskilled jobs in Kuwait showed the channel of migration to be a highly significant factor of migrant success. About 34% moved through friends/relatives and 50% through recruitment agents. Multivariate analyses indicate that those who came through friends/relatives earned a higher salary, found the job to fit their expectation, and were happier than those who came through agents, but more of the former came on an Azad visa which may be illegal. Personal networks are likely to encourage additional future migration and are very difficult to regulate through government initiatives.
(KUWAIT, SOUTHERN ASIA, IMMIGRANT WORKERS, MIGRATION FIELDS).
English - pp. 59-78.
N. M. Shah, University of Kuwait, Kuwait.
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Migration of Mexican seasonal farm workers to Canada and development: obstacles to productive investment.
This article explores the impact of international labor migration on development in communities of origin. It outlines three theoretical positions corresponding to specific theoretical trends in the field of development. The first position is represented by those who like modernization and some neo-Marxist analysts, postulate that remittances and acquired skills and knowledge contribute to local development (the optimistic perspective). The second position, corresponding to the dependency school of development, is represented by those who regard the impact of international migration in predominantly negative terms (the pessimistic perspective). And finally, there are those who believe that some, although limited, growth is possible when transmigrants remit financial and social capital (the moderately optimistic perspective). Theoretically, this latter approach corresponds to the thinking of the world systems and articulation analysts. Based on research on Mexican seasonal workers in Ontario, the article will argue that while international migration can contribute to some economic growth, this growth is limited. While the standards of living of seasonal labor migrants and their households improve (and therefore there is basis for some limited optimism), few among them invest their money in productive activities. Instead, the improvements that the migrants' households experience are linked to continuous external sources of income. The article illustrates that while Canada-bound migrants experience both structural constraints related to the decline in subsistence agriculture in Mexico and those related to household composition (absence of males from the household), specific criteria used to select participants in the Canadian seasonal farm worker program compound the problems associated with the low potential among these workers to invest remittances productively.
(CANADA, MEXICO, IMMIGRANT WORKERS, LABOUR MIGRATION, PLACE OF ORIGIN, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, THEORY, REMITTANCES, SEASONAL WORKERS).
English - pp. 79-97.
T. Basok, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4, Canada.
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LOGAN, John; ALBA, Richard D.; DILL, Michael; ZHOU, Min.
Ethnic segmentation in the American metropolis: Increasing divergence in economic incorporation, 1980-1990.
Based on the industrial sectors in which group members are concentrated, the ethnic economies of various racial and ethnic groups became more distinctive from one another during the 1980s. Non-Hispanic whites continued to dominate key sectors in every metropolitan area studied. Their withdrawal from some others, however, left openings for other groups in apparel manufacturing and in a variety of trade and personal service activities. The void was filled by selected immigrant groups who had already begun to establish enclave economies by 1980: especially Koreans, Chinese, and Cubans. As many as two-thirds of these groups' members worked in their enclaves in some regions. At the same time, other immigrant and minority groups, especially blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Filipinos remained highly dependent on employment niches in the public sector or working for other groups in the private sector. The model of a dual city (with a mainly white core economy and a minority periphery) is losing its descriptive power due to the divergent paths taken by different nonwhite groups.
(UNITED STATES, CITIES, RACES, ETHNIC GROUPS, SOCIAL STRATIFICATION, ECONOMIC STRUCTURE).
English - pp. 98-132.
J. Logan, R. D. Alba, M. Dill, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, U.S.A.; Min Zhou, UCLA, Department of Sociology, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Box 951361, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1361, U.S.A.
mzhou@soc.ucla.edu.
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DÁVILA, Alberto; MORA, Marie T.
English skills, earnings, and the occupational sorting of Mexican Americans working along the U.S.-Mexico border.
While English proficiency enhances labor market outcomes, its role in minority-language regions remains largely unexplored. Employing the U.S.-Mexico border as a minority-language region, we analyze whether English skills differently affect the earnings and occupational sorting of Mexican Americans along the border relative to their non-border peers. We find comparable English deficiency earnings penalties for Mexican immigrants, suggesting that this group responds to English-specific regional wage gaps. U.S.-born men, however, have larger earnings penalty along the border, possibly reflecting natives' relative immobility owing to strong geographic preferences. Occupational sorting exercises give credence to this interpretation for native Mexican American females.
(UNITED STATES, MEXICO, FRONTIER POPULATION, LANGUAGE MINORITIES, WAGES, OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE).
English - pp. 133-157.
A. Dávila, Department of Economics, University of Texas - Pan American, 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539-2999, U.S.A.; M. T. Mora, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001, U.S.A.
adavila@panam.edu.
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The language ability of U.S. immigrants: Assimilation and cohort effects.
This article uses data from the 1980 and 1990 U.S. Censuses of Population to examine the English language skills of natives and immigrants. It finds that lack of fluency in spoken English is rare among native-born Americans, including among the teenage and adult children of recently arrived ethnic groups. The vast majority of immigrants also speak English well. However, since the 1950s fluency among new immigrants has declined by 0.3 percentage point per year, because of the shift in source countries from English speaking countries and from continental Europe to Latin America and East Asia. Each additional year of U.S. residence increases the probability of fluency by 1.1 percentage points for immigrants from non-English speaking countries. An additional year of schooling increases fluency by 5 percentage points. Overall, women are slightly more likely to be fluent than men. The large differences in English skills by region of origin seem to be more associated with geographic distance from the U.S. than with the source country's per capita income or linguistic distance from English.
(UNITED STATES, IMMIGRANTS, LANGUAGES, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION).
English - pp. 158-182.
G. Carliner, Charles River Associates.
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The determinants of immigrant self-employment in Australia.
This article applies both single cross-section and dual cross-section approaches to modeling the propensity to be self-employed among the foreign born in the Australian labor market. The results from a single cross-section regression indicate that educational attainment, Australian labor market experience, the availability of capital, marital status and job related characteristics are important influences on self-employment outcomes. The propensity to be self-employed among immigrants is shown to be enhanced by the existence of enclave markets. Ethnic enclaves created via a common language provide more relevant prospects for self-employment than does the concentration of immigrants by birthplace. However, enclave markets do not have a significant impact on the self-employment outcomes of the Australian-born children of immigrants. The dual cross-section approach shows that the cross-section self-employment growth among immigrants is predominantly an adjustment effect rather than a cohort effect.
(AUSTRALIA, IMMIGRANTS, SELF-EMPLOYED, LEVELS OF EDUCATION, LANGUAGE MINORITIES, ETHNIC GROUPS).
English - pp. 183-214.
A. T. Le, The University of Western Australia, Australia.
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ABBASI-SHAVAZI, Mohammad Jalal; MCDONALD, Peter.
Fertility and multiculturalism: Immigrant fertility in Australia, 1977-1991.
This article examines the fertility patterns of immigrant groups in Australia during the period, 1977-1991. In this period, the previous policies of assimilation or integration of immigrants into mainstream culture were set aside in favor of a policy of multiculturalism, one of the dimensions of which was support for maintenance of culture. The general finding of research relating to the period prior to multiculturalism was that immigrants adapted to Australian fertility patterns. This study examines whether immigrants and their children in the era of multiculturalism have been more likely to maintain the fertility patterns of their country of origin than was the case in the past. The study concludes that while adaptation to Australian patterns remains the dominant feature of the fertility patterns of immigrants, Italian and Greek Australians show evidence of cultural maintenance.
(AUSTRALIA, IMMIGRANTS, CULTURAL CHANGE, FERTILITY DIFFERENTIALS, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION).
English - pp. 215-242.
M. J. Abbasi-Shavazi, The University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran; P. McDonald, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
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INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, 2000, Vol. 34, No. 2
Immigration control in United Germany: Toward a broader scope of national policies.
According to the mainstream literature on globalization and international migration, the nation-state's ability to manage immigration pressures has been massively reduced in recent decades. Contrary to this view, this article demonstrates that immigration control based on national structures may still work successfully if governments broaden their approach to the problem and make it a topic of all areas of policy, including foreign affairs and economic policy. A survey of German migration policy since reunification is given as an example of basically effective immigration control by government action adapting to the new challenges in the field.
(GERMANY, IMMIGRATION POLICY, INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, GOVERNMENT POLICY, POLITICS).
English - pp. 357-389.
R. Rotte, University of Munich, University of the German Armed Forces, Munich, Germany, and CEPR, London, U.K.
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Migration control in Germany and the United States.
Both Germany and the United States make efforts to ensure that only those considered eligible by their laws immigrate. This article develops a framework for the systematic analysis of migration control and comparatively surveys German and U.S. efforts step by step. Most differences can be interpreted as the choice between conflicting policy objectives. In highlighting these choices, the article aims to increase sensitivity for gains or losses in other arenas due to certain migration control measures. Specifically, the trade-off between international economic integration, discrimination prevention, crime prevention and tax collection on the one hand are discussed with migration control discussed on the other hand.
(GERMANY, UNITED STATES, IMMIGRATION POLICY, SELECTIVE IMMIGRATION, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, GOVERNMENT POLICY).
English - pp. 390-422.
D. Vogel, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany.
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Exit, voice, and hostility in Cuba.
Albert Hirschman's categories of "exit," "voice," and "loyalty," which were previously applied to the analysis of emigration and protests in East Germany, are discussed and applied to the case of Cuba. Incentives for different types of action which may be derived from policy decisions regarding migration, as well as information and repression, are placed in the context of the strategic interaction between the United States and Cuban governments. A game-theoretic model of the typical Cold War conflict between the two former German regimes is compared with the US-Cuba interaction regarding migration policy. In spite of some coincidence between the two governments to prefer "exit," successive waves of emigration of people from Castro's Cuba to the United States in the period 1959-1995 have induced an increasing degree of cooperation between the two governments over time to close off borders.
"Latin American powerholders have long encouraged their potential enemies and potential critics to remove themselves from the scene through voluntary exile." Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, 1970:60.
(CUBA, UNITED STATES, EMIGRATION, MIGRATION POLICY, EXILE, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION).
English - pp. 423-442.
J. M. Colomer, CSIC and University Pompeu Fabra, Spain.
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JASSO, Guillermina; MASSEY, Douglas S.; ROSENZWEIG, Mark R.; SMITH, James P.
Assortative mating among married new legal immigrants to the United States: Evidence from the New Immigrant Survey Pilot.
This article provides a brief summary of the Pilot for the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) and presents new information, never before available, on one important aspect of immigrant behavior -- assortative mating. Our intent is to provide a flavor for the kinds of questions that can be studied with this new data base and with the larger-sample full New Immigrant Survey by presenting new information on married couples who are part of immigration flows and whose characteristics are importantly shaped by immigration law. We distinguish between two types of couples, those in which one spouse is a U.S. citizen sponsor and those in which both spouses are immigrants. Our findings include the following: First, among married couples formed by a U.S. citizen sponsoring the immigration of a spouse, husbands and wives have similar levels of schooling, with the U.S. citizen slightly better educated than the immigrant spouse; however, U.S. citizen husbands and their immigrant wives have substantially higher schooling than U.S. citizen wives and their immigrant husbands (on average, two years higher). Second, unlike immigrants from other countries, Mexico-born spouses of U.S. citizens differ markedly in schooling depending on whether they are recently married, suggesting the continuing after-effects of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Third, husband-wife schooling levels are less similar among married couples in which both spouses are immigrants than among couples involving a U.S. citizen sponsor and an immigrant spouse, except when the wife is the principal in an employment category. These findings suggest that immigration laws importantly shape the characteristics of families and thus the next generation - the children of immigrants and immigrant children.
(UNITED STATES, IMMIGRANTS, MATE SELECTION, MARRIED PERSONS, MIXED MARRIAGE, LEVELS OF EDUCATION).
English - pp. 443-459.
G. Jasso, Department of Sociology, New York University, 269 Mercer St, 412, New York, NY 10003, U.S.A.; D. S. Massey, M. R. Rosenzweig, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.; J. P. Smith, Rand Corporation, 1700 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90406, U.S.A.
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The spatial association between U.S. immigrant residential concentration and environmental hazards.
Several studies undertaken over the past decade suggest that minority and lower-income communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards relative to the rest of the U.S. population, resulting in an issue of "environmental equity." This research examines the equity issue in relation to the foreign born in the United States, making use of a county-level, nationwide, dataset reflecting sociodemographic characteristics and the presence of several environmental risk factors (toxic releases, hazardous waste generators, and Superfund sites). The results suggest that counties with higher proportions of immigrants and non-English speaking households are characterized by greater numbers of large quantity hazardous waste generators and proposed Superfund sites, two of the three incorporated measures of environmental risk. The later measure demonstrates the strongest relationship with immigrant presence.
(UNITED STATES, IMMIGRANTS, HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, POPULATION CONCENTRATIONS, ENVIRONMENT).
English - pp. 460-488.
L. M. Hunter, Utah State University and University of Colorado at Boulder, U.S.A.
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Changes in the geographic concentration and location of residence of immigrants.
Increases in the number and size of enclaves of the new immigrant groups from Latin America and Asia during the 1980s have changed the ethnic composition of many American cities. I have classified primary and secondary enclave networks for each immigrant country of origin in order to examine changes in the geographic concentration of immigrants. First I calculated the Duncan index of dissimilarity for immigrants relative to natives at the metropolitan area level. I then use individual-level data to follow immigrant cohorts over time in order to examine how time in the United States is associated with movements from primary enclaves to other geographic areas in the immigrant networks. There is movement from the primary enclave to the periphery of the primary enclave, to areas of smaller groupings of immigrants from the same country of origin, and to areas that do not have large groupings of immigrants from the same country. It is significant that many of these changes in location occur quite late in the assimilation process.
(UNITED STATES, CITIES, IMMIGRANTS, POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, POPULATION CONCENTRATIONS, ETHNIC GROUPS, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION, GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY).
English - pp. 489-510.
E. Funkhouser, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, U.S.A.
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GANG, Ira N.; STUART, Robert C.
Does background matter? The transmission of human capital from a planned to a market economy.
The early U.S. economic achievement of former Soviet citizens entering the United States during the period 1979 through 1985 is analyzed. Using the Soviet Interview Project (SIP) data, components of human capital acquired in the former Soviet Union (FSU) are identified and related to labor force participation and income outcomes in the United States. FSU education, experience and industry variables have important, variable and differing impacts upon both participation and income, and such outcomes differ for males and females. FSU immigrants' income is below U.S. income. Differing rates of return to characteristics, not the endowments themselves, are responsible for observed differentials.
(UNITED STATES, USSR, IMMIGRANTS, HUMAN RESOURCES, OCCUPATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS, LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION, INCOME, SEX DIFFERENTIALS).
English - pp. 511-537.
I. N. Gang and R. C. Stuart, Rutgers University, Faculty of Economics, 75 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, U.S.A.
stuart@economics.rutgers.edu.
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VINOKUROV, Andrey; BIRMAN, Dina; TRICKETT, Edison.
Psychological and acculturation correlates of work status among Soviet Jewish refugees in the United States.
The present study assesses the relationship of work status to acculturation and psychological adaptation among 206 refugees from the former Soviet Union who have resettled in the United States. These refugees lived in two different urban areas: the Washington, DC area and the Brighton Beach community in New York. Psychological adaptation was measured in terms of life satisfaction and alienation. Three categories of work status were used: unemployed, underemployed and employed in one's own field of professional expertise. In general, a linear trend was found among the three groups. Thus, refugees employed in the same field as in the former Soviet Union had been in the United States the longest and reported the highest levels of income, level of American acculturation, comfort speaking English, and life satisfaction. Those unemployed were lowest on each of these variables. Alienation was significantly lower only among those employed in the same professional field and was equally high for both the unemployed and the underemployed. City differences revealed that residents of the Washington, DC area were more likely to be working and had higher levels of education, income; life satisfaction, comfort speaking English, and behavioral acculturation to the American culture. Implications are offered for the role of work in immigrant adaptation and the importance of attending to community differences.
(UNITED STATES, CITIES, USSR, JEWS, REFUGEES, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION, ACCULTURATION, EMPLOYMENT, LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION).
English - pp. 538-559.
A. Vinokurov, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, U.S.A.; D. Birman, Georgetown University Medical Center, U.S.A.; E. Trickett, University of Maryland, College Park, U.S.A.
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New citizens - new voters? Political preferences and voting intentions of naturalized Germans: A case study in progress.
The third millennium witnesses the introduction of a new naturalization law in Germany. Passed by both chambers of parliament in May 1999, the law can be interpreted as a legislative change in Germany's national identity. From January 1, 2000 on, not only German ancestry but also birth on German soil will qualify for the acquisition of German citizenship. The change is remarkable, even though permanent residency of at least one parent is an additional precondition to acquire German citizenship and, in the case of dual citizenship, a final choice of one citizenship has to be made by the age of 23. The naturalization of foreigners also became easier: eight years of residency instead of the formerly required ten will enable a foreigner to become German. Still criticized by the left of the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party, as well as by the opposition Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), these changes in naturalization law nevertheless are the most notable ones in twentieth century Germany.
(GERMANY, NATURALIZATION, LEGISLATION).
English - pp. 560-567.
A. M. Wüst, Heidelberg University, Grabengasse 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
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