Diverse Pathways: Race and the Incorporation of Black, White, and Arab-Origin Africans in the United States

Chapter 4. Occupational Status, Human-Capital Transfer, and the Incorporation Process

53 Chapter 4 Occupational Status, Human-Capital Transfer, and the Incorporation Process A n observational study was conducted between January 2006 and June 2007 to investigate reports of race-based employment discrimination at high-end restaurants in New York (Lee 2009). As part of the study, thirty-seven individuals, who were Black, White, Asian, or Latino, were ask to apply for positions as waiters/waitresses advertised by 181 restaurants. The Black applicants included immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. Regardless of race or immigration status, all applicants were pretrained to ensure that they used similar mannerisms and provided similar answers to questions they were asked after arriving at the restaurants. As expected, the findings from the study were disconcerting; still, they were consistent with research showing how racial and ethnic biases influence hiring decisions. In particular, the results indicated that non-White applicants were about half as likely as White applicants to be offered a job. Furthermore, the work experience of White applicants was less scrutinized than that of Blacks. Surprisingly, White applicants with “foreign” accents were more likely to be hired than other applicants. Yet irrespective of migration status, this apparent “accent” advantage was not observed among Black and other job applicants. As with these applicants, immigrant racial and ethnic minorities experience occupational disparities that reflect variations in the success of their job-search processes. These variations take on added importance among immigrants becausethetypesofjobstheysecureaftertheirarrivalhaveanimmediatebearing 54 C h a p t e r 4 on their social and economic welfare. Quite apart from their significance for the sustenance of immigrants’ families, job-search processes provide immigrants withperhapstheirfirstexperienceofstructuredinteractionwithUSinstitutions. This means that among African immigrants, occupational attainment patterns can be used to draw important conclusions about the ways in which race and ethnicity influence their interactions with these institutions. Variations in the dynamics of occupational attainment also provide initial pointers regarding racial and ethnic disparities in progress towards complete integration into society. As Gordon (1964) argues, the degree to which immigrants are integrated into the institutions of society, for example, employment institutions, is an important indicator of their readiness for more advanced assimilation processes. Thus we can expect that among African immigrant subgroups, trajectories of occupational incorporation will reflect differences in progress towards complete integration into the mainstream of US society. Also critical to the understanding of African immigrants’ occupational incorporation processes is an examination of their occupational rewards to human capital (e.g., education, language attributes) in the US labor market. Despite consistent evidence showing high levels of schooling among Africans (e.g., Kaba 2007; Kent 2007), however, little is known about the ways in which race and Arab ethnicity affect their occupational rewards to education. For example, scholars are yet to determine whether Black, White, or Arab-origin Africans with similar levels of schooling are equally likely to be employed in prestigious, high-level occupations. Instead, what we know about African experiences in the US labor market comes from selected studies examining income differences in general (e.g., Dodoo 1997; Moore and Amey 2002) and related differences between Black Africans, other Black immigrants, and US-born Blacks (e.g., Butcher 1994; Dodoo 1991). A limited number of studies have also demonstrated that White African immigrants experience greater financial rewards to labor than Black African immigrants (Dodoo and Takyi 2002; Kollehlon and Eule 2003). Within the body of work on African immigrant labor market outcomes, therefore , a considerable degree of racial and ethnic inequality has been identified. Labor market rewards such as income and wages can reflect substantial differences in occupational attainment between groups. We know, for example, that doctors, engineers, and scientists typically earn higher incomes than farm laborers and janitors. Yet increasing evidence demonstrates that racial and ethnic minorities are disadvantaged in terms of occupational status compared to Whites, even among the US-born population (Kim and Tamborini 2006; Miech, Eaton, and Liang 2003). Consequently, if Black Africans are found to be occupationally disadvantaged relative to White Africans, this disparity will be consistent with 55 I n c o r p o r a t i o n P r o c e s s the pattern of labor market differentials observed in previous studies. Beyond differences in occupational attainment, the extent to which the educational credentials of African immigrants are fully utilized in their current occupations provides an additional perspective on the dynamics of their occupational incorporation processes. In particular, there is now increasing concern among...