Gender Differences in the Relationships of Human Capital and Social Capital with Employment of Immigrants in the United States

Purpose: Although immigrants have increasingly played important roles in the U. S. labor market, many of them still have high unemployment rates (Murray & Jordan, 2010) and low occupational status (OECD, 2008). Human capital and social capital are often considered in studies on labor market performance (Saenz & Cready, 2004). Recent research also suggests that gender moderates the relationship between human and social capital with employment (Livingstron, 2006). However, gender has been ignored in studies examining association between human and social capital, and immigrants’ employment. This study examines whether the relationships of human capital and social capital with employment status and occupational status of immigrants in the US vary by gender.

Method: The New Immigrant Survey 2003 data including immigrants admitted to lawful permanent resident status in the US (Jasso et al., 2005) were used. For this study, samples are restricted to working age adults, 18-64 years (N=7,200). The model on the employment status includes the full sample (male=3,510/female=3,690), and the model for occupational status includes only working immigrants (N=4,522; male=2,683/female=1,839).

Employment status measures whether a respondent was employed or unemployed, and occupational status is categorized into high, medium and low occupational status according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data categorizing US workers’ occupations by the level of training and education (U.S. Department of Labor, 2003). Human capital is measured by education, work experience, and occupational status in native countries and the U.S., as well as English proficiency and health. Social capital factors are measured with whether having a native spouse, support from family/relatives/friends, and social/religious group memberships. Selected individual and family characteristics are controlled. To test the moderating effects of gender, subgroup analysis is conducted with binary logistic regression for employment status and multinomial logistic regressions for occupational status.

 

Results: Both female and male immigrants who had foreign work experiences and good/excellent health conditions were more likely to be employed, but those who had previous higher occupational status in foreign countries were less likely to be employed. Females who had US working experiences and high English-language skills were more likely to be employed, but males who had more years of US education were less likely to be employed. Females who had US native spouses were less likely to be employed.

Regarding occupational status, education in both US and abroad, previous occupational status, and English skills were positively related to both male and female immigrants’ current occupational status. However, US work experience was related to only males’ occupational status. Among social capital variables, social group membership increased, but religious participation numbers decreased the males’ occupational status.

Implications: The study findings indicate that in order to improve immigrants’ employment rate and occupational status, practitioners and policy makers need to consider gender-specific policy and programs to enhance their human and social capital. For example, programs that enhance English skills and working experiences would help increase female immigrants’ employment, and vocational education or job training programs as well as programs for enhancing social interactions could potentially help the occupational status of male immigrants.