Authors: Alexis Rosenblum, William Darity, Jr., Angel L. Harris, and Tod G. Hamilton
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine whether a labor market penalty exists for members of immigrant groups as a result of being phenotypically different from white Americans. Specifically, the authors examine the link between skin shade, perhaps the most noticeable phenotypical characteristic, and wages for immigrants from five regions: (1) Europe and Central Asia; (2) China, East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific; (3) Latin America and the Caribbean; (4) Sub-Saharan Africa; and (5) the Middle East and North Africa. Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, a nationally representative multi-cohort longitudinal study of new legal immigrants to the United States, the authors find a skin shade penalty in wages for darker immigrants. However, disaggregating by region of origin shows that this finding is driven exclusively by the experience of immigrants from Latin America; the wage penalty for skin tone is substantial for self-reported nonblack Latin American immigrants. The effects of colorism are much less pronounced or nonexistent among other national-origin populations. Furthermore, although a skin shade penalty is not discernible among African immigrants, findings show that African immigrants experience a racial wage penalty.
Key Findings
- An immigrant with the darkest skin shade on the scale earns roughly 76 cents for every dollar earned by an immigrant with the lightest skin shade on the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) scale.
- The previously-documented skin shade penalty in wages for darker skinned immigrants, though, is driven by the large percentage of Latin American immigrants.
- When immigrants are disaggregated by region of birth and race, skin shade penalties remain significant only for those who were born in Latin America and the Caribbean and for white immigrants.
- Nonblack Latin American immigrants with the darkest skin shade earn roughly 20 percent less than their lightest counterparts.
- The effects of colorism, however, are much less pronounced or nonexistent among other racial and national-origin populations.
