Do Immigrants Work in Worse Jobs than U.S. Natives? Evidence from California

Madeline Zavodny

No 8327, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In the debate over immigration reform, it is frequently asserted that immigrants take jobs that U.S. natives do not want. Using data from the 2000 Census merged with O*NET data on occupation characteristics, I show that the jobs held by immigrants are more physically arduous than the jobs held by U.S. natives. However, data from the California Work and Health Survey on self-reported physical job demands indicate that immigrants do not perceive their jobs as requiring more physical effort than U.S. natives. Immigrants thus have worse jobs than natives but do not view them as such.

Keywords: immigrants; working conditions; compensating differentials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2014-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Industrial Relations 2015, 54, 276-293

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Journal Article: Do Immigrants Work in Worse Jobs than U.S. Natives? Evidence from California (2015)
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