Occupational Achievement of Indian and Chinese Immigrants in the United States: A Comparative Study

Lopamudra Ray Saraswati, Jawaharlal Nehru University

This paper measures and thereby compares extent of upgradation/downgradation of Indian and Chinese immigrants in the U.S. labor market. The main focus is to find out factors affecting labor market performance. We have compared their current occupational status with that of just before migration and at very beginning of their stay in U.S. We used data from New Immigrants Survey, 2003. The occupational ranking has been formulated as a function of variables: occupational category, years of education, age of entry into job, working hours and wages. Results show that occupational ranking before migration has a consistent and strong association with probability of experiencing success in the U.S. labor market. Education obtained in U.S. is more highly rewarded than that from the source -country. The variables for the class of admission show that, overall, employment based immigrants have higher probabilities of having a better occupational status than others.