This dissertation examines whether a degree earned abroad is less valuable for Asianimmigrants in the U.S. labor market than for White immigrants and, if so, the reasons for such
disparities. Many studies have documented the existence of a foreign education penalty. However,
the underlying mechanisms for the lower returns to foreign education are still being determined.
Building on the demographic heterogeneity framework, this study aims to advance our
understanding of immigrants’ experience in the labor market by investigating whether the lower
earnings returns for Asian immigrants with foreign education stem from lower educational
quality/transferability, as suggested by the human capital approach, or from biased practices in the
labor market, as proposed by credentialism. Methodologically, this study will compare the
earnings outcomes of Asian immigrants to those of U.S.-born Whites as well as foreign-educated
white immigrants.
Using ACS data from 2015-2019 on White and Asian workers aged 25-64 with bachelor’s
degrees or higher, I analyze the impact of STEM majors and the English-speaking proficiency of
the sending country to explore the effect of human capital transferability. Then, I examine the
effect of a country’s GDP per capita and the rates of tertiary education to capture the effect of
educational quality. To access credentialism, I compare the earnings differences for Asian
immigrants who earn degrees in regions more culturally or historically similar to the U.S. to those
degrees earned in other regions. Then, I examine the residual earnings difference between foreign-educated
White and Asian immigrants to access queuing theory. Finally, I separate the study
population into subsamples of men and women to investigate whether Asian immigrants’ labor
market disadvantages are contingent on gender.
Chapter 2 to 5 can be read as a stand-alone study that uses nationally representative survey
data to study the aspects listed above. Results from these analyses show that the earnings
disadvantage of Asian immigrants educated in foreign countries is largely due to the limited
transferability of their human capital in the U.S. labor market rather than to credentialism. Returns
to foreign education are higher for immigrants with STEM degrees or from countries where
English is an official language. In addition to the human capital transferability, this study also
shows that White immigrants seem to have an advantage over Asian immigrants if they were
educated in places with longer linguistic and cultural differences compared to the United States.
In addition, my findings support the explanation that female immigrants’ varied family experiences
and migration paths are different from those of their male counterparts, thus leading to their notable
disadvantages in the labor markets. The results indicate that establishing clear and transparent
processes for recognizing foreign academic and professional credentials is a critical way to
alleviate the lower returns on Asian immigrants’ foreign credentials. / Sociology
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/10320 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Wang, Bohui |
| Contributors | Goyette, Kimberly A., Klugman, Joshua, Bachmeier, James D., Sanfelice, Viviane |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 165 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/10282, Theses and Dissertations |
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