Submission Type
Event
Faculty Advisor
Eric Jensen
Expected Graduation Date
2018
Location
Room E102, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
Start Date
4-21-2018 11:00 AM
End Date
4-21-2018 12:00 PM
Disciplines
Education
Abstract
Upon arrival in the United States, refugees suffer from a substantial disadvantage in the US labor market when compared to economic immigrants and natives. However, over time, labor market assimilation occurs for refugees as their employment outcomes improve, but the degrees and rates of assimilation vary greatly among refugee groups. This paper aims to analyze why some refugee groups perform worse than others in the US labor market when human capital differences have been accounted for. This paper has two foci; firstly, it looks at how the quality of source country human capital and its transferability to the host country labor market impact the labor market performance among refugee groups. The second focus broadens the scope to identify non-human capital factors that affect wage gaps between refugees and non-refugee immigrants with similar backgrounds. Using the 1980, 1990, and 2000 US decennial census data and the 2001-2015 American Community Survey data, I conducted both descriptive statistics and ordinary least squares regression analyses to compare labor market outcomes of refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Romania, Russia and other USSR states, Laos, Iraq, and Somalia.
Included in
Exploring the Contributing Factors to Labor Market Assimilation Outcomes Across Refugee Groups in the United States
Room E102, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
Upon arrival in the United States, refugees suffer from a substantial disadvantage in the US labor market when compared to economic immigrants and natives. However, over time, labor market assimilation occurs for refugees as their employment outcomes improve, but the degrees and rates of assimilation vary greatly among refugee groups. This paper aims to analyze why some refugee groups perform worse than others in the US labor market when human capital differences have been accounted for. This paper has two foci; firstly, it looks at how the quality of source country human capital and its transferability to the host country labor market impact the labor market performance among refugee groups. The second focus broadens the scope to identify non-human capital factors that affect wage gaps between refugees and non-refugee immigrants with similar backgrounds. Using the 1980, 1990, and 2000 US decennial census data and the 2001-2015 American Community Survey data, I conducted both descriptive statistics and ordinary least squares regression analyses to compare labor market outcomes of refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Romania, Russia and other USSR states, Laos, Iraq, and Somalia.