Abstract
This paper seeks to extend assimilation scholarship by focusing on the impact ofimmigrant receptivity attitudes. We test the hypotheses that receptivity attitudestoward immigrants held by citizens of metropolitan and regional labor marketswill have a direct impact, and/or interact with the educational human capital ofimmigrants, in explaining the occupational attainment of male and female immigrantworkers. Multi-level modeling is used to test the impact of aggregated immigrantreceptivity attitude measures, derived from the General Social Survey, which arespatially merged with immigrant worker human capital, individual-level assimilation,and area labor market indicators to predict managerial/professional and service/laboroccupation attainment of immigrant workers from a merged 1995–97 CurrentPopulation Survey data file. The results provide support for the receptivity attitudesthesis with statistically significant effects on service and labor attainment, but showminimal effects on managerial and professional occupational attainment. The keyreceptivity dimensions affecting occupational attainment are native-born citizens'attitudes concerning the impact of immigrants on American society, and attitudeson English-only language policies. The results show no systematic support for thereverse causation hypothesis that the occupational patterns of immigrants determinethe immigrant receptivity attitudes of citizens.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alba, R. & Nee, V. (1999), Rethinking assimilation theory for a new era of immigration, pp. 137–160 in C. Hirschman, P. Kasinitz & J. DeWind (eds.), The handbook of international migration: The American experience. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Bohning, W.R. (1984), Studies in international labour migration. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Bohon, S. (2001), Latinos in ethnic enclaves: Immigrant workers and the competition for jobs. New York: Garland Publishing.
Borjas, G.J. (2000), Issues in the economics of immigration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Borjas, G.J. (1994), The economics of immigration. Journal of Economic Literature 32: 1667–1717.
Chiswick, B.R. (1978), The effect of Americanization on the earnings of foreign-born men. Journal of Political Economy 86: 897–921.
De Jong, G.F. & Tran, Q.-G. (2001), Warm welcome, cool welcome: Mapping receptivity toward immigrants in the U.S., Population Today 29(8): 1, 4–5.
Espenshade, T.J. & Hempstead, K. (1996), Contemporary American attitudes toward U.S. immigration, International Migration Review 30: 535–570.
Gans, H.J. (1992), Second-generation decline: Scenarios for the economic and ethnic futures of the post-1965 American immigrants, Ethnic and Racial Studies 15: 173–192.
Gordon, M. (1964), Assimilation in American life: The role of race, religion, and national origin. New York: Oxford University Press.
Heckman, J. (1979), Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econometrika 47: 153–161.
Higham, J. (1988), Strangers in the land: Patterns of American nativism 1896–1925, second edition. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Huber, G. & Espenshade, T. (1997), Neo-isolationism, balanced-budget conservatism, and the fiscal impacts of immigrants, International Migration Review 31: 1031–1054.
Lind, M. (1995), The next American nation: The new nationalism and the fourth American revolution. New York: Basic Books.
Massey, D. (1999), Why does immigration occur? A theoretical synthesis, pp. 43–52 in C. Hirschman, P. Kasinitz & J. DeWind (eds.), The handbook of international migration: The American experience. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Piore, M. (1979), Birds of passage: Migrant labor in industrial societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Portes, A. (1995), Economic sociology and the sociology of immigration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Powers, M.G. & Seltzer, W. (1998), Occupational Status and mobility among undocumented immigrants by gender, International Migration Review 32: 21–55.
Raijman, R. & Tienda, M. (1999), Immigrants' socioeconomic progress post-1965: Forging mobility or survival?, pp. 239–256 in C. Hirschman, P. Kasinitz & Josh DeWind (eds.), The handbook of international migration: The American experience. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Raudenbush, S., Bryk, A., Cheong, Y.F. & Congdon, R. (2000), HLM5: Hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling. Lincolnwood, IL: SSI International.
Reitz, J.G. (1998). The warmth of the welcome. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Sassen, S. (1989), New York City's informal economy, pp. 60–77 in A. Portes, M. Castells & L. Benton (eds.), The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
Sanchez, G.J. (1997), ‘Face the nation: Race, immigration, and the rise of nativism in the late twentieth-century America’, International Migration Review 31: 1109–1130.
Waldinger, R. (1986), Through the eye of the needle: Immigrants and enterprise in New York's garment trades. New York: New York University Press. Waldinger, R. (1994). The making of an immigrant niche, International Migration Review 28: 3–30.
Zhou, M. (1992), Chinatown: The socioeconomic potential of an urban enclave. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
De Jong, G.F., Steinmetz, M. Receptivity Attitudes and the Occupational Attainment of Male and Female Immigrant Workers. Population Research and Policy Review 23, 91–116 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:POPU.0000019929.59033.70
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:POPU.0000019929.59033.70