Socioeconomic differentials among single-race and multi-race Japanese Americans

Arthur Sakamoto*, Isao Takei, Hyeyoung Woo

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Using data from the 2000 US Census, this study investigates various groups of single-race and multi-race Japanese Americans in terms of their schooling and wages. The results indicate that all categories of Japanese Americans tend to have higher schooling than whites. Single-race Japanese Americans tend to have higher schooling than multi-race Japanese Americans, and 1.5-generation Japanese Americans tend to have higher schooling than native-born Japanese Americans. With the exception of foreign-educated, immigrant Japanese Americans, most of the wage differentials are explained by schooling and a few other demographic characteristics. These results are rather inconsistent with traditional assimilation theory which posits rising socioeconomic attainments with increasing acculturation. Instead, the findings suggest a reverse pattern by which the groups that are more closely related to Japan tend to have higher levels of educational attainment which then become translated into higher wages.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1445-1465
    Number of pages21
    JournalEthnic and Racial Studies
    Volume34
    Issue number9
    Early online date2 Feb 2011
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Sept 2011

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Cultural Studies
    • Anthropology
    • Sociology and Political Science

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Asian Americans
    • Assimilation
    • Education
    • Japan
    • Multi-race
    • Racial classification

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