1. Enduring Advantages: Explaining the Chinese and Indian Immigrant Wealth Advantage in the U.S.
- Author
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Borelli, E. Paige and Keister, Lisa A.
- Abstract
In this paper, we build upon theories of segmented assimilation and wealth attainment to construct a theory of wealth accumulation that emphasizes enduring advantages. Enduring advantages are human and physical capital advantages that encourage positive selection from immigrants' home countries and persist throughout the immigration experience, resulting in disparate patterns of economic mobility. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), we first situate Chinese and Indian immigrants within the U.S. wealth distribution by comparing their wealth to native wealth and confirm the presence of the Chinese/Indian wealth advantages. We describe the wealth of established immigrants who have lived in the U.S. an average of 15 years, and predict their likelihood of belonging to the middle or upper class. Using the New Immigrant Survey (NIS), we analyze asset ownership and net worth of new immigrants to the U.S., whose average U.S. tenure is less than 3 years to establish a starting point for immigrant wealth. Our research presents three key findings on immigrant wealth. First, while both Indian and Chinese immigrants experience a wealth advantage, different factors contribute to the successful wealth accumulation of these groups. Second, new Indian immigrants arrive in the U.S. with a wealth advantage that Chinese immigrants, as a group, do not have. Finally, foreign assets are an important contributing factor in the Chinese/Indian wealth advantage. Importantly, this research emphasizes the effects of processes occurring throughout the life course on immigrant economic incorporation, including events occurring outside of the U.S. and prior to migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013