Black Immigrants in the United States: A Comparison with Native Blacks and other Immigrants

Abstract

This analysis of 1980 Census data shows that in 1979 immigrant black men had higher employment rates than native-born black men, but the wages of employed members of the two groups were nearly the same. Further, the wage differences that did exist between these groups appear to have stemmed from the selection process associated with migration, not (as has been argued by-some) from differences between the cultural traditions of immigrant and native-born blacks: on a variety of employment and wage measures, black Jamaican and other Caribbean immigrant men in 1979 were remarkably similar to native-born black “movers” (men who had moved out of their state of birth by the Census date).