Sherrie A. Kossoudji

English Language Ability and the Labor Market Opportunities of Hispanic and East Asian Immigrant Men

Immigrant workers will be evaluated by their ability to speak English as well as by their other skills. The empirical work in this article addresses the hypothesis that there is an economic cost to English language deficiency both in occupation-specific earnings and in (cross-sectional) occupational mobility. This analysis suggests that it is costly to be deficient in English, but the cost is ethnically and occupationally specific. Hispanics have a higher cost for English language deficiency than Asians at every skill level.

THE IMPACT OF ORIGIN COMMUNITY CHARACTERISTICS ON RURAL-URBAN OUT-MIGRATION IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY

It is widely believed that structural variables such as inequitable land distribution, lack of rural employment opportunities, and rural-urban wage and amenity gaps influence population movements in developing countries. Yet quantitative evidence is scant. In this paper a multilevel model is used to investigate the effects of individual-, household-, and areal-level factors on rural-urban out-migration in the Ecuadorian Sierra. Data from a detailed survey carried out in 1977–1978 and from government macro-areal statistics are used to investigate factors affecting the out-migration of youths aged 12–25. Preliminary conclusions are presented on the usefulness of multilevel models in studying migration and policy implications for Ecuador.

IRCA's Impact on the Occupational Concentration and Mobility of Newly-Legalized Mexican Men

Abstract. We examine the occupational concentration and mobility of a group of unauthorized Mexican men who received amnesty under IRCA to shed light on the role of legal status in the assimilation process. Initially these men are concentrated in a small number of traditional migrant jobs. Although their occupational mobility rate is high, it partly represents churning through these same occupations. When we consider the direction – either upward or downward – of occupational change, we find that English language ability and the characteristics of the occupation, itself, are strongly correlated with mobility before legalization. After legalization, few characteristics surpass in importance the common experience of having received amnesty.

Playing Cat and Mouse at the U.S.-Mexican Border*

Border control and apprehension activity represents a major element of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Does apprehending an undocumented migrant deter remigration? If it does not, does it change future migration behavior? I explore these questions by testing hypotheses about the effects of apprehension on the actual and desired length of stay in the United States and on the frequency of migration for undocumented Mexican male migrants. Results suggest that INS policy may well be backfiring. Migrants stay in the United States longer on non-apprehended trips and stay in Mexico for shorter spells between trips to compensate for the cost of a past apprehension.

Profiles of Temporary Mexican Labor Migrants to the United States

Profiles of temporary labor migrants from Mexico to the United States are constructed using Mexican data from a nationwide sample. Commuters are compared with noncommuters and males with females. Characteristics according to region of origin are examined and the profiles from this study are compared with those from two prominent previous surveys. Directions for future research are suggested. (summary in FRE SPA) (EXCERPT)

Finding good opportunities within unauthorized markets : U.S. occupational mobility for male Latino workers

Unauthorized workers, because of their lack of legal status, have constrained opportunities in U.S. labor markets. We examine the determinants of occupational mobility for a sample of unauthorized Latino men who received temporary residency status under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). Estimates from mobility equations (for both upward and downward occupational mobility) show that English language ability, experience, the risk of being apprehended on the job, a realized apprehension, migrant networks, and the wage penalty for unauthorized workers all play specific and significant roles in mobility when working in unauthorized labor markets.

Working Class Rosies: Women Industrial Workers during World War II

After joining the industrial workforce during World War II, women disappeared from industrial employment with postwar reconversion. This article uses data from Ford Motor Company employee records to describe female industrial workers, their work histories before Ford, and their exit patterns from Ford. We draw a more complete picture of these industrial workers and discuss the differences between those who chose to leave Ford and those who left involuntarily. Contrary to popular myth it was housewives, along with African-American and older women, those with the fewest outside opportunities, who were more likely to be laid-off.

Immigrant and Native Asset Accumulation in Housing

Purchasing a home is the largest expenditure many people will make during their lifetime, as well as their greatest source of wealth. There is a homeownership gap between natives and immigrants well documented in the literature. I examine the determinants of homeownership, the value of purchased homes (a measure of potential housing wealth), and the equity owned for those who have purchased a home (a measure of actual housing wealth) for immigrants and natives. When immigrants are separated by citizenship status the homeownership gap between natives and immigrants is shown to be a gap between natives and non-citizen immigrants. Immigrant citizens have ownership outcomes as good or better than natives. Further, the gap reflects a problem in ownership, brought about by age and income distributional differences, not in value or equity for homeowners. All immigrants are predicted to have higher home value and home equity than natives.

Economics of assisted reproduction

Typically, when two people decide to become parents, they procreate by copulation and produce a child. What do people do if, for some reason, they can’t produce their own children but want to be parents? Today, a prospective parent can go to the web, drop a vial of sperm from a donor with specific selected characteristics into a “shopping cart” and have that sperm delivered in twenty-four hours. Similarly, one can sift through the profiles and pictures of women who are egg donors and select eggs from women with desired characteristics and arrange an egg delivery. These markets are two segments that loosely fall under the rubric of Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART), which is a shorthand term for the numerous procedures aided by technology used to produce a baby. This primer in the economics of assisted reproduction introduces some of the economic dilemmas brought about by new reproductive technologies. Now the cost of producing children can radically differ among people of similar incomes and values because a prospective parent may have to pay to gain rights to the genetic components that build the child.