Graduation Year

2010

Publication Date

4-22-2010

Embargo Period

4-22-2010

Abstract

Media reports all over the USA reported that a wave of Islamophobia had gripped the USA after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It seemed as though the American population were blaming not the radicals but the Middle Easterners and the Muslims in general for the inhumane act. Some reports even suggested a new sort of McCarthyism in the USA but this time against the Middle Eastern populace. This paper investigates whether such discrimination transformed itself in the US labor market by conducting an econometric analysis, taking Becker’s taste for discrimination theory as its theoretical basis. It first analyzes whether there was a significant change in wage differentials between Middle Eastern population groups compared to native Americans pre and post 2001. Secondly, it accomplishes a regional analysis to see whether the populations from certain Middle Eastern regions were discriminated more than other regions. Lastly, the paper examines other labor market outcomes such as labor force participation rates and unemployment rates, to determine whether discrimination was present in other avenues and to provide an all encompassing picture of Middle Eastern immigrants in the US labor market before and after the attack of September 11th.

Disciplines

Economics

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