Workplace Concentration of Immigrants

Monica I. Garcia-Perez, Fredrik Andersson, John Haltiwanger, Kristin McCue and Seth Sanders ()
Additional contact information
Monica I. Garcia-Perez: Department of Economics, St. Cloud State University
Fredrik Andersson: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Seth Sanders: Duke University

No 2011-20, Working Papers from Saint Cloud State University, Department of Economics

Abstract: To what extent do immigrants and the native-born work in separate workplaces? Do worker and employer characteristics explain the degree of workplace concentration? We explore these questions using matched employer-employee data that extensively cover employers in selected MSAs. We find that immigrants are much more likely to have immigrant coworkers than are natives, and are particularly likely to work with their compatriots. We find much higher levels of concentration for small businesses than for large ones, that concentration varies substantially across industries, and that concentration is particularly high among immigrants with limited English. We also find evidence that neighborhood job networks are strongly positively associated with concentration. The effects of networks and language remain strong when type is defined by country of origin rather than simply immigrant status. The importance of these factors varies by immigrant country of origin—for example, not speaking English well has a particularly strong association with concentration for immigrants from Asian countries. Within MSAs, we find that observable employer and employee characteristics account for about half of the difference between immigrants and natives in the likelihood of having immigrant coworkers, with differences in industry, residential segregation and English skills the most important factors.

Keywords: concentration; segregation; immigrant workers; social networks. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J21 J31 J61 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://repository.stcloudstate.edu/econ_wps/20/ (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Workplace Concentration of Immigrants (2014)
Working Paper: Workplace Concentration of Immigrants (2011)
Working Paper: Workplace Concentration of Immigrants (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:scs:wpaper:1120

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