RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Wage Mobility of Foreign-Born Workers in the United States
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 628
OP 658
DO 10.3368/jhr.48.3.628
VO 48
IS 3
A1 Seik Kim
YR 2013
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/3/628.abstract
AB This paper presents new evidence on whether foreign-born workers assimilate. While the existing literature focuses on the convergence/divergence of average wages, this study extends the analysis to the distribution of wages by looking at wage mobility. We measure the foreign-native gap in year-to-year transition probabilities from one decile group to another of a wage distribution, where the deciles are determined by native samples. Our results, based on the Current Population Survey for 1996–2008, suggest that immigrants in middle and bottom decile groups, who are the majority of immigrants, tend to fall behind relative to natives in the same decile groups.