Color, Race and Socioeconomic Assimilation: Young Adult Immigrant Generations in the Labor Market

Monica Boyd, University of Toronto

North American studies frequently focus on immigrant offspring who are children or on those aged 25-64 who are in the labor force. I refine previous studies of economic attainments by focusing on those age 20-34, living in cities, using the 2006 Canadian census. Heckman-probit and Heckman regression techniques are employed to remove the selection effects that come with analyzing this population. As in the United States, young Black or Latin American groups are disadvantaged relative to other groups but findings are mixed for other groups who have higher levels of educational attainments. Equally important, multivariate analyses of occupations and of earnings also show marked differences by sex. These results portray an optimistic view of the socioeconomic attainments of the 1.5 and second generation for women but less so for men, indicating the gendered nature of race and color based outcomes for immigrant offspring.