The economic advancement of European minority immigrants to the USA

ABSTRACT

This study highlights the recent changes in the composition of the Western European immigrant population to the United States. This research examines the growing diversity of this migratory stream, investigating seven groups of immigrants from Western Europe to the USA. Findings show that individuals who were born in Western Europe but whose families have origins outside of Western Europe have been settling in the US in growing numbers. In addition, immigrants from Western Europe of non-European descents carry a higher ethnic penalty when they come to the USA, but most of them advance faster economically than immigrants of Western European descents, besides Sub-Saharan Africans who remain disadvantaged. Three plausible explanations for this phenomenon are tested, and findings show that the gap between the level of discrimination experienced by a given ethnic group in the origin country and the level of discrimination experienced by the same ethnic group in the destination country is the most influential determinant.

KEYWORDS:

• Minorities
• migration
• discrimination
• Western Europe
• socioeconomic mobility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.