Does Skin Tone Matter? Immigrant Mobility in the U.S. Labor Market

• In Event: 2207 - Racialized Assimilation of Immigrants and their Children

Abstract

A rich literature documents the negative association between a dark skin tone and many dimensions of U.S.-born Americans’ life chances. Despite the importance of both skin tone and immigration in the American experience, few studies explore the effect of skin tone on immigrant incorporation, much less longitudinally. I analyze data from the new immigrant survey (NIS) 2003 to examine how skin tone is associated with occupational achievement at three time points: the last job held abroad, the first job held in the U.S. and the current job. While I find no association between dark skin tone and occupational status in the job held before immigration, there is a negative association at both time points after immigration to the U.S., net of human and social capital, race/ethnicity, country of origin, gender, and age. Dark-skinned immigrants experience steeper downward mobility at arrival to the U.S. but slower subsequent upward mobility relative to light-skinned immigrants. These findings shed light on multiple current literatures, including “segmented assimilation,” cultural narratives of assimilation, and multi- dimensionality of race.

Author

• JooHee Han, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign