How do parental migration histories matter for children’s economic outcomes?

Abstract

In 2015, nearly 78 million newcomers entered the United States. While about 1 million of these individuals are legal permanent residents (LPRs) with green cards and authorization to stay indefinitely, the remainder arrive on temporary statuses with authorization to stay for a finite amount of time. This reflects one part of the complex US immigration system that includes a permanent component and a temporary component. Whether newcomers enter with permanent or temporary status has profound and long-term consequences for their integration in the US, including income and job mobility. While these different statuses may have enduring effects for immigrant adults, it is unclear what the effects are for their offspring, many of whom are born in the US or arrive at a young age. This study examines whether the entry statuses of immigrant mothers and fathers (permanent vs. temporary) affects their children’s occupation type and income. This study analyzes data from the 2004 Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles. Overall, the study finds that children whose mothers arrived as LPRs are less likely to be employed in blue collar occupations. However, there is no significant effect of father’s entry status on children’s occupation type.

Keywords:

• Children of immigrants
• occupational attainment
• entry visa
• income

Acknowledgements

I thank anonymous reviewers and the editorial board for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this article.

Notes

1. Diversity visas are awarded to individuals from countries with historically low migration rates to the US.