Moderating Effects of U.S. Citizenship On Wages of Asian Immigrant Women in the United States

Background and Study Purposes: Being an immigrant as well as a female might put a worker at double-disadvantage in the labor market. In the United States, because many jobs are not open to noncitizens, citizenship can be an important factor that influences both the initial wage and wage growth of immigrants. However, few studies have systematically investigated the potential impact of U.S. citizenship on wages, particularly among Asian female immigrants who are one of the most rapidly growing groups in the U.S. and have higher rates of labor force participation when compared to immigrant women from other racial groups. This study aims to examine the extent to which U.S. citizenship moderates the relationship between socio-demographic and immigration-related characteristics and wages of Asian immigrant women in the U.S.

Methods: The present study used data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) of the United States Census. The IPUMS-USA represents more than fifty high-precision samples of the U.S. populations (Ruggles et al., 2008). For the study sample, data from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) were obtained. The sample consisted of 26,132 Asian female adults, ages 18-64, who were employed: Chinese (n=7,061), Filipino (n=6,792), Asian Indian (n=4,542), Vietnamese (n=3,008), Korean (n=2,706), and Japanese (n=2,023). To account for the IPUMS's complex sampling designs, including stratification and unequal weighting, all statistical analyses were conducted using the survey procedures of SAS, version 9.2. To compare socio-demographic and immigration-related characteristics between U.S. citizens and noncitizens, chi-square and t-tests were conducted. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine factors associated with wages of the sample as well as moderating effects of U.S. citizenship between socio-demographic and immigration-related characteristics and wages.

Results: Bivariate statistics showed that noncitizens were younger, more likely to be married, had lower levels of English speaking, shorter length of residence in the U.S., and had lower wages when compared to their U.S.-citizens counterparts (p < .05). Multivariate statistics showed that higher levels of education, having U.S. citizenship, higher English proficiency were associated with higher wages of the sample, after controlling for occupational characteristics (p < .05). As hypothesized, education level had the largest impact on wages (b = 0.92, p < .0001). Findings also indicated that U.S. citizenship moderated the relationship between education and wages. In other words, college education increased wages for U.S. citizens, but not for noncitizens. There was no moderating effect of U.S. citizenship on the relationship between English proficiency and wages.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings from this study show that Asian immigrant women without U.S. citizenship are more vulnerable in the labor market when compared to their counterparts with U.S. citizenship. The disparities in wages are likely to be a result of the barriers generated by the lack of citizenship, such as employer discrimination or ineligibility for welfare programs, which simultaneously increases the opportunity cost of foregoing employment opportunities and decreases the reservation wage necessary for securing employment. Policy makers need to recognize and address these barriers in order to improve workplace equality for immigrant women.