The Influence of Race on Employment Status and Earnings of African Immigrant Men in the United States

This paper uses the labor queue theory to examine the changing influence of race on the employment status and earnings of African immigrant men in the United States between 1980 and 2008. The results show that the white advantage echoed in previous research has diminished. Black African immigrant men's chance of being employed is now greater than that of their white counterparts when their sociodemographic characteristics are taken into consideration. However, when human capital factors are included in the regression models, white African immigrant men still maintain a significant advantage in earnings. This study also uncovered differential impacts of marriage and school enrollment on white and black African immigrant men's employment and earnings. These results challenge the use of labor queue theory as a framework for explaining immigrants' experience in the US job market.