June 20, 2013

Borjas: The Slowdown in the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants

Here's a new paper from Harvard economist George Borjas:
The Slowdown in the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants: Aging and Cohort Effects Revisited Again 
George J. Borjas 
NBER Working Paper No. 19116 
Issued in June 2013 
This paper uses data drawn from the 1970-2010 decennial Censuses to examine the evolution of immigrant earnings in the U.S. labor market. The analysis reveals that there are cohort effects not only in the level of earnings, with more recent cohorts generally having relatively lower entry wages, but also in the rate of growth of earnings, with more recent cohorts having a smaller rate of economic assimilation. Immigrants who entered the country before the 1980s typically found that their initial wage disadvantage (relative to natives) narrowed by around 15 percentage points during their first two decades in the United States. In contrast, the immigrants who entered the country after the 1980s have a negligible rate of wage convergence. Part of the slowdown in wage convergence reflects a measurable reduction in the actual rate of human capital accumulation. In particular, there has been a concurrent decline in the rate at which the newer immigrant cohorts are “picking up” English language skills. The study isolates one factor that explains part of these trends: The rate of increase in English language proficiency is significantly slower for larger national origin groups. The growth in the size of these groups accounts for about a quarter of the decline in the rates of human capital acquisition and economic assimilation.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tweet from Wikileaks:

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/347475869629022208

"Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him."

Anonymous said...

" Was Michael Hastings Running for His Life When He Crashed?"

http://www.crimefilenews.com/2013/06/was-michael-hastings-running-for-his.html

"Award winning journalist Michael Hastings reportedly was under investigation by the FBI after his explosive interview and news story that led to the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal.
The sudden rash of conspiracy theories surrounding Hastings death seems to have serious merit. As a long time investigator, I have obvious questions. I have learned that Hastings was a good and temperate driver. The 4:15 AM, June 18th fiery crash of his Mercedes sedan in Los Angeles show signs of incredibly high speed that apparently caused the loss of control of the car by Hastings.
Very recently Hastings had complained to several people that he was under surveillance by the FBI. The FBI is nothing more than an arm of Eric Holder’s Justice Department and they often get instructions from the very highest levels of government.
The only thing that comes to mind is that Hasting must have been running from someone threatening him. We all know the Obama Administration has gone rogue with surveillance and currently they are in paranoia mode with even their most loyal media cheerleaders at the major networks and newspapers. Lately they’ve been unsuccessfully doing cover-ups and damage control is at a furious pace. Controlling leaks is proving impossible.
Hastings has been obviously viewed as a major threat to the Obama and his henchmen. Obama claims he only traded American liberty and privacy for public safety.
Spying on the media is unacceptable in any free society. That’s not stopped Obama’s style one bit. Obama’s clearly out to crush anyone that creates the slightest amount of embarrassment to him. America has spiraled right into a Banana Republic in that regard.
The immediate questions I have are was Hastings under surveillance at the time of his death? Was a GPS device attached to his car by anyone? With drone technology the covert GPS like I sometimes employ is antiquated by comparison. Where was Hastings in the few hours that led up to the time of death? Was there an incendiary device in the car that caused or embellished that inferno that followed the crash? Has the Federal government involved themselves into the routine LAPD accident investigation and why? Somehow I don’t expect any transparency here.
This mysterious death is in dire need of a comprehensive, exhaustive and independent investigation."

Chris Anderson said...

This would be same George Borjas who approved Jason Richwine's thesis and then failed to defend him against the mob? Interesting

Anonymous said...

Mission accomplished.

Anonymous said...

I think we need an plain English version for this one.

What does this say; what are the implications?

Anonymous said...

In particular, there has been a concurrent decline in the rate at which the newer immigrant cohorts are “picking up” English language skills. The study isolates one factor that explains part of these trends: The rate of increase in English language proficiency is significantly slower for larger national origin groups.

My dad came from a European nation. I grew up in a small town where we were the only folks with such an ethnic link. Consequently we grew up only speaking English and never even learned so much as one word of my dad's native tongue.

I guess if my dad had come to the USA with his entire village, the story would have been different.

McGillicuddy said...

If immigrants are not assimilating as fast as they did when there were fewer of them, the obvious solution is to add more immigrants. At least that makes sense to congress.

Anonymous said...

As the enclaves get bigger they get sucked into the black economy. where there isn't much of a career path especially as it means they don't need to learn English.