The study, co-authored by ChangHwan Kim of the University of Kansas and Arthur Sakamoto of the University of Texas at Austin, asks "Have Asian American Men Achieved Labor Market Parity with White Men?" According to the data, the answer is no:
"The most striking result is that native-born Asian Americans - who were born in the U.S. and speak English perfectly - their income is 8 percent lower than whites after controlling for their college majors, their places of residence and their level of education," said ChangHwan Kim, an assistant professor of sociology at KU, who led the study.Kim and Sakamoto used data from the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates, Among their other notable findings:
- First-generation Asian American men, who were born and completed their education overseas, earn 29 percent less than white men in the U.S.I'm a little surpised with the findings about 1.5-generation Asian American men. The report attributes their earnings parity with a "burden of success" for their whole immigrant family. So does that mean second generation Asian American men are affected less by this burden? Perhaps.
- 1.25-generation Asian American men, those who earned their highest degree at a U.S. institution, but were born and previously educated in a foreign country, had incomes 14 percent lower than those of white men.
- The only group to have achieved earnings parity with white men is 1.5-generation Asian American men. Though foreign-born, these men came to the U.S. as children, so therefore speak perfect English and have U.S. educations.
The full results of the study appear in the December issue of the American Sociological Review. It's not available online, but you can go to the ASR website here to order a copy.
