Extended Stratification: Immigrant and Native Differences in Individual and Family Labor

Abstract

This article outlines a theoretical system of extended stratification in order to account for differences between immigrants and natives in (1) the amount of time individuals devote to paid work and (2) the number of family members participating in paid work. The basic argument is that immigrants with a frame of reference that includes being socialized in a relatively poor sending society tend to have greater work incentive than natives who have been socialized in a richer host society. This variation in work incentive obtains because the economic rewards achieved through additional work are evaluated more highly by groups that have as their frame of reference a comparatively poor society. According to this argument, the intergroup difference in work incentive should obtain even when economic need is held constant. We derived two hypotheses and tested them with a comparative analysis of immigrants and natives, including native coethnics of the immigrants. At the level of the individual and of the household, the findings are largely consistent with the hypotheses.