Immigration Law

Immigrant Skin Color Affects Earnings?

An Associated Press story in the Dallas Morning News today describes a recent study regarding the skin color of immigrants, and the effect the may have on their earnings. The disturbing conclusion of the study is that lighter-skinned immigrants earn more money, due to the prejudices of U. S. employers. Here are excerpts from the article:

Light-skinned immigrants in the United States make more money on average than those with darker complexions, and the chief reason appears to be discrimination, a researcher says.

Dr. Joni Hersch, a law and economics professor at Vanderbilt University, looked at a government survey of 2,084 legal immigrants to the U.S. from around the world and found that those with the lightest skin earned an average of 8 percent to 15 percent more than similar immigrants with much darker skin.

"On average, being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education," Dr. Hersch said.

Other researchers said the findings are consistent with other studies on color and point to a skin-tone prejudice that goes beyond race.

Dr. Hersch took into consideration other factors that could affect wages, such as English-language proficiency, education, occupation, race or country of origin, and found that skin tone still seemed to make a difference in earnings.

That means that if two similar immigrants from Bangladesh, for example, came to the United States at the same time, with the same occupation and ability to speak English, the lighter-skinned immigrant would make more money on average.

Although many cultures show a bias toward lighter skin, Dr. Hersch said her analysis shows that the skin-color advantage was not due to preferential treatment for light-skinned people in their country of origin. The bias, she said, occurs in the U.S.

Economics professor Dr. Shelley White-Means of the University of Tennessee at Memphis said the study adds to the growing body of evidence that there is a "preference for whiteness" in America that goes beyond race.

Dr. William Darity Jr., an economics professor at the University of North Carolina, said Dr. Hersch's findings are similar to a study he co-authored last year on skin tone and wages among blacks.

"We estimate that dark- or medium-skinned blacks suffered a discriminatory penalty of anywhere from 10 percent to 15 percent relative to whites," he said. "This suggests people cue into appearance and draw inferences about capabilities and skills based on how they look."

Dr. Darity said it is not clear whether the bias is conscious or subconscious.

From Immigration-Law-Answers-Blog posted 2007-01-27.