Gendered Understanding of Work-Family Conflict Among Immigrant Workers

Background: The number of immigrants living in the U.S. has grown exponentially. Immigrant population was recorded at 9.6 million in 1970. By the year 2016 this figure increased to 43.7 million, representing a 355 % increase and constituting 13.5% of the total U.S. population. Of these immigrants 27.6 million are also attached to the labor force accounting for about 17% of the civilian labor force (Zong, Batalova, & Hallock, 2018). Although men dominate immigrant labor market, close to fifty-three percent of the immigrant women participate in the labor force. Work and family role expectations may differ for men and women and thus work and family stressors can be experienced differently (Presser, 1999; Pedraza, 1991) among these groups and calls for a gendered understanding of the workplace experiences. Furthermore, immigrant male and female workers are over-represented in low-paying and low-skills occupations (Zong, Batalova, & Hallock, 2018; Mosisa, 2002), these occupations may also contribute to workers experiences of strain thus resulting in work-family conflict (Grzywacz et al., 2007). 

Purpose: Few studies have examined work-family conflict among immigrant workers, and as a first step towards understanding workplace characteristics and work-family conflict experienced, by immigrant men and women in the U.S. the following research questions were answered:

• Are there differences between immigrant men and women workers’ experiences of job demands, social support at work, and work-family conflict?
• Which of the job demands and social support at work are associated with work-family conflict among the two groups?

Methods: Data from NSCW (2002) was used to address this study’s research questions. Telephone interviews were conducted using a random digit dialing method. In this study a sample of 157 immigrant workers was included. Bivariate, and multivariate analyses were used to determine differences between the two groups and examine job demands and social support associated with work-family conflict.

Results: Results suggested female immigrant workers are more likely to have higher education and male workers are more likely to have higher paying jobs. In this sample, as compared to men, female workers experienced significantly higher levels of workload pressure and work-role ambiguity. Among female workers total hours worked and workload pressure were significantly associated with time-based and strain-based work-family conflict and learning requirements were negatively associated with strain-based work-family conflict. Among male workers workload pressure was significantly associated with time-based and strain-based work-family conflict and learning requirement were negatively associated with time-based and strain-based work-family conflict. Among males total hours worked were associated with time-based work-family conflict and being married was associated with strain-based work-family conflict. Among both the groups, co-worker and supervisor support was significantly negatively associated with time-based and strain-based work-family conflict.

Conclusions and Implications: Results indicate that job demands are experienced a little differently among female and male immigrant workers and the workplace characteristics associated with time-based and strain-based work-family conflict are different for the two groups. This finding has implications for organizational practices and policies that support the unique needs of these two groups.