Does an Immigrant Background Ameliorate Racial Disadvantage? The Socioeconomic Attainments of Second-Generation African Americans

Although there is a growing literature on the socioeconomic circumstances of the second generation, this issue has not been systematically considered for African Americans. To help fill this research gap, we investigate the extent to which the socioeconomic attainments of second-generation African Americans differ from mainstream (i.e., third and higher generation) African Americans. Using data from the Current Population Survey and the 2000 Census, our results indicate that the schooling and wages of second-generation African Americans consistently exceed those of third- and higher generation African Americans. Our findings also reveal that second-generation African Americans do at least as well as whites in terms of years of schooling, but wage differentials differ significantly by gender. Second-generation African-American women earn wages that are at least as high as comparable white women, but second-generation African-American men earn wages that are, on average, about 16% less than measurably comparable white men. While no one theoretical perspective can account for all these results, they nonetheless indicate the continuing significance of racial disadvantage for African-American men, including those with an immigrant background.