Different Country, Same Work

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Painter ◽  
Matthew R. Sanderson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Capital Theory ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Capital Theory

This study builds on recent work investigating the process of migration channeling between analogous sectors of the Mexican and U.S. labor markets. In this study, the authors take up the question of whether channeling between Mexico and the United States promotes immigrants’ economic integration. Drawing on previous research on channeling, and using insights from human capital theory, the authors test the hypothesis that immigrants who are able to use their industry-specific knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired in Mexico within the same industry in the United States achieve higher levels of economic integration. Using a sample of Mexican immigrants from the New Immigrant Survey, we find that industrially channeled immigrants experience a wage premium of over $5,000, on average, in the United States. Our study concludes with a discussion of what industrial channeling means for Mexican immigrants’ broader integration into U.S. society.

scholarly journals The Extent of the Labor Market in the United States, 1870–1914

1998 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-318
Author(s):  
Joshua L. Rosenbloom
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Standards Of Living ◽  
Factor Markets ◽  
Rapid Pace ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
International Convergence

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the spread of railroad and telegraph networks in the United States and Europe, the introduction of steamships on transatlantic routes, and the laying of transatlantic telegraph cables initiated a period of pronounced economic integration within and between countries (Williamson 1996; Thomas 1954; Chandler 1977; Perloffet al. 1965; James 1978). This period was also characterized by a rapid pace of growth and pronounced international convergence in standards of living among the countries of western Europe, North America, and Australia (Maddison 1991). Jeffrey Williamson (1996) has recently argued that the increasing integration of factor markets, especially labor markets, in this era was a crucial factor in the pace of international convergence.

Double Disadvantage

2016 ◽  
Vol 666 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Durand ◽  
Douglas S. Massey ◽  
Karen A. Pren
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Illegal Migrants ◽  
Secondary Sector ◽  
Substantial Decline

From 1988 to 2008, the United States’ undocumented population grew from 2 million to 12 million persons. It has since stabilized at around 11 million, a majority of whom are Mexican. As of this writing, some 60 percent of all Mexican immigrants in the United States are in the country illegally. This article analyzes the effect of being undocumented on sector of employment and wages earned in the United States. We show that illegal migrants are disproportionately channeled into the secondary labor market, where they experience a double disadvantage, earning systematically lower wages by virtue of working in the secondary sector and receiving an additional economic penalty because they are undocumented. Mexican immigrants, in particular, experienced a substantial decline in real wages between 1970 and 2010 attributable to their rising share of undocumented migrants in U.S. labor markets during a time when undocumented hiring was criminalized.

The Color Line: Racial Norms and Discrimination in Urban Labor Markets, 1910–1950

1994 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 382-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Sundstrom
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
Color Line ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Economic Analyses ◽  
Urban Labor Markets

In both northern and southern cities of the United States, African-Americans faced a web of social constraints on such activities as housing, shopping, and everyday interpersonal interactions. These constraints had implications for the labor market as well. In particular, norms against white subservience to blacks played an important role in determining the racial composition of occupations. Close attention to the operation of such social norms can add much explanatory power to conventional economic analyses of discrimination based on human capital and taste for discrimination.

scholarly journals Development of the Human Capital Theory in the 21st Century: Megatrends and the Russian Context

2020 ◽  
pp. 60-87
Author(s):  
Olga V. Kudelina ◽  
◽  
Irina B. Adova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Capital Theory ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
New Era ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Bibliographic Search ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
Active Research ◽  
Capital Development

The authors review the development of the human capital theory with its four main stages in terms of components and the studied proxy variables: classical thoughts about investment in human capital, economic fundamental research in the field of human capital, research in the field of the theory of investment in human capital, the transformation of views on the theory of human capital. The established periodisation of the stages of human capital development shows that since 2010 a new era of human capital formation has been forming under changes in the paradigm of socioeconomic relations caused by the explosive growth of digital technologies and the pronounced individualisation of human labour, which has become less institutionalised. As a result of a bibliographic search, the authors found that more than half of the publications on human capital in the Scopus database (66.1%) cover the period from 2010 to 2020. The most active research in this area is conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, and Russia. Research interests are expanding from socioeconomic sciences to computer science, engineering, the humanities, and environmental sciences.

Earnings Mobility of First and “1.5” Generation Mexican-Origin Women and Men: A Comparison with U.S.-Born Mexican Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites

1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 386-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine M. Allensworth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Population Census ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Female Immigrants ◽  
Important Means

This study addresses the following questions: Are Mexican immigrants closing the earnings gap with greater time in the United States, compared to U.S.-born Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites? What factors are most important in determining their earnings? How are earnings determinants different for women versus men, and those who came to the United States as children, versus those who came as adults and those born in the United States? Data is drawn from the 1990 PUMS U.S. Population Census for Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, and Texas and includes only individuals ages 25–35. Determinants of education and hours of paid work are also analyzed as important means to higher incomes. With greater time in the United States, male immigrants achieve average earnings comparable to U.S.-born Mexican Americans, but not to non-Hispanic whites, controlling for human capital variables. With greater time in the United States, female immigrants approach the number of hours of paid work of U.S.-born women, but not the earnings received per hour. Gains in earnings associated with age, time in the United States, and English proficiency differ by gender, reflecting structural differences in the labor market. Immigrants who came to the United States as children show little difference in earnings, controlling for human capital, from U.S.-born Mexican Americans, while differing greatly from first generation immigrants who came as adults.

scholarly journals Education in Korea: Efficiency vs. Equity

1990 ◽  
Vol 5 (0) ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Dong-Kun Kim ◽  
Joong-Ryul Kim
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Capital Theory ◽  
Labor Income ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Labor Market Segmentation ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Labor Quality

This paper attempts to analyse the effects of education on income distribution in Korea. The human capital theory suggests that an unequal distribution can be reduced by improving the distribution of education because variations in labor income are due to the differences in labor quality in terms of the amount of human capital, especially education, acquired by the workers. On the other hand, a general skepticism about the role of education also can be observed. Thurow, for instance, has shown that in the United States, a country which is a prominent example of educational expansion, schooling has had only a negligible effect in reducing income inequality, although education constitutes one of the key elements in economic growth. Critics of human capital theory, one example is the labor market segmentation theory, asserts that education cannot improve earnings inequality unless other institutional factors, such as occupational earnings structure, are changed. By investigating those two approaches, we can assess whether education can be used as a policy tool to improve the earnings distribution.

Pathways to Legalization: Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in the US/Mexico Borderlands, 1942–1956

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Elizabeth Rosas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Immigrant ◽  
Agricultural Laborers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Contract Laborers

In the 1940s, curbing undocumented Mexican immigrant entry into the United States became a US government priority because of an alleged immigration surge, which was blamed for the unemployment of an estimated 252,000 US domestic agricultural laborers. Publicly committed to asserting its control of undocumented Mexican immigrant entry, the US government used Operation Wetback, a binational INS border-enforcement operation, to strike a delicate balance between satisfying US growers’ unending demands for surplus Mexican immigrant labor and responding to the jobs lost by US domestic agricultural laborers. Yet Operation Wetback would also unintentionally and unexpectedly fuel a distinctly transnational pathway to legalization, marriage, and extended family formation for some Mexican immigrants.On July 12, 1951, US president Harry S. Truman’s signing of Public Law 78 initiated such a pathway for an estimated 125,000 undocumented Mexican immigrant laborers throughout the United States. This law was an extension the Bracero Program, a labor agreement between the Mexican and US governments that authorized the temporary contracting of braceros (male Mexican contract laborers) for labor in agricultural production and railroad maintenance. It was formative to undocumented Mexican immigrant laborers’ transnational pursuit of decisively personal goals in both Mexico and the United States.Section 501 of this law, which allowed employers to sponsor certain undocumented laborers, became a transnational pathway toward formalizing extended family relationships between braceros and Mexican American women. This article seeks to begin a discussion on how Operation Wetback unwittingly inspired a distinctly transnational approach to personal extended family relationships in Mexico and the United States among individuals of Mexican descent and varying legal statuses, a social matrix that remains relatively unexplored.

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