Wage assimilation of immigrants: A comparison of 'new' and 'old' Asian source countries

Abstract

The US Immigration Act of 1965 increased inflows from previously under-represented countries, mainly from Asia and Latin America. Using data from multiple US Censuses, this paper studies the wage-assimilation profiles of a group of immigrants from 'new' Asian countries arriving in the USA after 1965, and compares their profiles to those of immigrants from 'old' Asian countries also arriving in the same period. The wage-gap versus natives widens for all cohorts from new Asian countries after the second decade of stay. Cohorts from old Asian countries, who have a longer history of representation in the USA, follow the well-documented narrowing albeit concave wage-gap profiles. The differences in slopes between new and old Asian cohorts are considered in the light of comparatively larger increases in new-Asian inflows, the formation of regional occupation niches among new Asian groups and their growing segregation vis-a`-vis white workers after 1965. A conceptual framework examines the case if occupations are imperfect substitutes, and natives and immigrants are worse substitutes than entrant and established immigrants within occupations-the wages of the established immigrants may fall in response to a large inflow of entrants.