How Does Race Operate Among Asian Americans in the Labor Market?: Occupational Segregation and Different Rewards by Occupation Among Native-Born Chinese American and Japanese American Male Workers. How Does Race Operate Among Asian Americans in the Labor Market?: Occupational Segregation and Different Rewards by Occupation Among Native-Born Chinese American and Japanese American Male Workers.

How Does Race Operate Among Asian Americans in the Labor Market?: Occupational Segregation and Different Rewards by Occupation Among Native-Born Chinese American and Japanese American Male Workers‪.‬

Ethnic Studies Review 2010, Summer, 33, 1

    • HUF999.00
    • HUF999.00

Publisher Description

The effect of race in the U.S. labor market has long been controversial. One posits that racial effects have been diminished since the civil rights movement of the 1960s (Alba & Nee, 2003; Sakamoto, Wu, & Tzeng, 2000; Wilson, 1980). Even if some disparities in labor-market outcomes among race groups are found, advocates of this "declining significance of race" thesis do not attribute these disparities to racial discrimination. They, instead, understand the racial gaps as a result of class composition of racial minority groups, classes represented by larger proportions of the working-class population (Wilson, 1980, 1997) as well as unskilled-immigrant workers (Borjas, 1994). This position tends to ignore populations such as Asian Americans. Asian Americans are characterized neither as the working-class-dominant group nor as the unskilled group. They have higher instances of obtaining professional occupations (Barringer, Takeuchi, & Xenos, 1990). The earnings of some Asian ethnic groups exceed the earnings of non-Hispanic Whites (1) (Shinagawa & Kim, 2008; Shinagawa & Lee, forthcoming). Because of these labor-market outcomes, Asian Americans are often cited as a supporting case for labor-market assimilation theories (Alba & Nee, 2003; Sakamoto, Wu, & Tzeng, 2000), or as an exceptional case to the persistence of racial disadvantages (Massey, 2007, p.113). (2) These perspectives are often supported by aggregate information across occupational fields on Asian Americans, which include their high median incomes and their high percentage of holding professional occupations. However, studies focusing on such aggregate information often overlook racial disparities observed in segmentation of field within professional occupations as well as reward differentials by the field of occupations between Asians and Whites. Within professional occupations, indeed, the levels of earnings returns vary according to the field of professional occupations; some professional occupations are characterized as high-paying fields while other professional occupations are not. According to Sakamoto and Xie (2006), Asian Americans have been segregated from non-Asian Americans occupationally and have not converged from 1960 to 2000. Particularly, highly educated Asian Americans are found disproportionately in high-paying computer, engineering, and medical occupations. Given that, we can infer that the high median and mean wages of Asian Americans are largely the reflection of the high earnings of professional workers in such lucrative science and technology fields. If there is occupational segregation between Asian Americans and Whites within professional occupations, how should we interpret that in the light of racial effects? Can we still say that Asian Americans are assimilating into the U.S. labor

GENRE
Reference
RELEASED
2010
22 June
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
36
Pages
PUBLISHER
National Association for Ethnic Studies, Inc.
SIZE
449.3
KB
Immigration and Domestic Politics in South Africa: Contradictions of the Rainbow Nation (Company Overview) Immigration and Domestic Politics in South Africa: Contradictions of the Rainbow Nation (Company Overview)
2010
Rifton Finns: An Ethnic Enclave in Ulster County, New York (Report) Rifton Finns: An Ethnic Enclave in Ulster County, New York (Report)
2008
W.E.B. Dubois's "the Comet" and Contributions to Critical Race Theory: An Essay on Black Radical Politics and Anti-Racist Social Ethics (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois) (Critical Essay) W.E.B. Dubois's "the Comet" and Contributions to Critical Race Theory: An Essay on Black Radical Politics and Anti-Racist Social Ethics (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois) (Critical Essay)
2006
Orientals Need Apply: Gender-Based Asylum in the U.S. Orientals Need Apply: Gender-Based Asylum in the U.S.
2010
Jacob Riis and Double Consciousness: The Documentary/Ethnic "I" in How the Other Half Lives (Company Overview) Jacob Riis and Double Consciousness: The Documentary/Ethnic "I" in How the Other Half Lives (Company Overview)
2010
Resistance and Reinvention of the Subject in Jackie Kay's Trumpet (Critical Essay) Resistance and Reinvention of the Subject in Jackie Kay's Trumpet (Critical Essay)
2006