The Effect of Place of Origin on the Relative Earnings of Immigrant Women

This paper explores the earnings differentials between female immigrants from 14 places of origin when compared to each other and a number of other groups. The very large differences in average earnings between female immigrant groups are found to be largely due to human capital and family characteristic differences. The study employs OLS regression to make earnings comparisons between immigrant women from each of the 14 places of origin to three reference groups. We find that although female immigrants from most countries are doing well relative to female natives, they fall significantly behind native males and male immigrants, even after controlling for differences in human capital. Thus, some groups of immigrant women suffer a double disadvantage in the U.S. workforce, one due to gender and the other due to their relatively low levels of human capital.