IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joerap/v2y2019i1d10.1007_s41996-018-0025-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changing Sex-Ratios Among Immigrant Communities in the USA

Author

Listed:
  • Adriana Hernández Castañeda

    (Cornell University)

  • Todd A. Sørensen

    (University of Nevada)

Abstract

Marriage patterns of immigrants can serve as an indicator of the degree of immigrant integration into their host countries. Literature on the economics of the household has focused on the role of the sex-ratio as an important determining factor in marriage market outcomes. Therefore, it is important to understand if and how the sex-ratio has changed over time and the mechanisms that may drive that change. In this paper, we explore recent changes in the sex-ratio among immigrants to the USA, focusing on the 24 highest sending countries of immigrants. First, building upon previous research, we document the non-gender-neutral nature of declining immigration to the USA. We approach this study from two different dimensions to document some of the forces driving this change in the sex-ratio. The first approach, focusing on changes between birth cohorts, demonstrates that immigration is declining more quickly for men than it is for women, leading to a decrease in the sex-ratio from above 100 and thus bringing about more gender-balanced migration. Second, we present results from an analysis of data on recently granted green cards, which suggests that the sex-ratio among this population is increasing from below 100, also bringing about more gender balance among immigrants. The period of study allows us to capture changes taking place pre- and post-Great Recession. We find declines in migration for both men and women during the Great Recession, but sharper recovery for women. Additionally, while migration has declined for both men and women in traditional receiving states, the stock of women has increased in non-traditional immigrant-receiving states.

Suggested Citation

  • Adriana Hernández Castañeda & Todd A. Sørensen, 2019. "Changing Sex-Ratios Among Immigrant Communities in the USA," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 20-42, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joerap:v:2:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s41996-018-0025-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s41996-018-0025-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41996-018-0025-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41996-018-0025-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miao Chi, 2015. "Does intermarriage promote economic assimilation among immigrants in the United States?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(7), pages 1034-1057, October.
    2. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 2, pages 3-29, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Furtado Delia & Theodoropoulos Nikolaos, 2010. "Why Does Intermarriage Increase Immigrant Employment? The Role of Networks," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-33, November.
    4. Josh Angrist, 2002. "How Do Sex Ratios Affect Marriage and Labor Markets? Evidence from America's Second Generation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(3), pages 997-1038.
    5. Gordon Hanson & Chen Liu & Craig McIntosh, 2017. "The Rise and Fall of U.S. Low-Skilled Immigration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(1 (Spring), pages 83-168.
    6. Gordon H Hanson & Craig McIntosh, 2010. "The Great Mexican Emigration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 798-810, November.
    7. Shoshana Grossbard & Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, 2008. "Cohort-level sex ratio effects on women’s labor force participation," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 309-309, September.
    8. Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), 2013. "International Handbook on the Economics of Migration," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4026.
    9. Xin Meng & Robert G. Gregory, 2005. "Intermarriage and the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 135-176, January.
    10. Delia Furtado & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, 2011. "Interethnic marriage: a choice between ethnic and educational similarities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 1257-1279, October.
    11. Erin Trouth Hofmann & E. Miranda Reiter, 2018. "Geographic Variation in Sex Ratios of the US Immigrant Population: Identifying Sources of Difference," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(3), pages 485-509, June.
    12. Douglas S. Massey & Jorge Durand & Karen A. Pren, 2014. "Explaining Undocumented Migration to the U.S," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 1028-1061, December.
    13. Peter Norlander & Todd A Sørensen, 2018. "21st Century Slowdown: The Historic Nature of Recent Declines in the Growth of the Immigrant Population in the United States," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 15(3), pages 409-422, July.
    14. Grossbard,Shoshana A. (ed.), 2003. "Marriage and the Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521814546, January.
    15. Borjas, George J. (ed.), 2007. "Mexican Immigration to the United States," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226066325, July.
    16. Andrés Villarreal, 2014. "Explaining the Decline in Mexico-U.S. Migration: The Effect of the Great Recession," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(6), pages 2203-2228, December.
    17. George J. Borjas, 2007. "Mexican Immigration to the United States," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number borj06-1, December.
    18. Shoshana Grossbard, 2015. "The Marriage Motive: A Price Theory of Marriage," Springer Books, Springer, edition 127, number 978-1-4614-1623-4, April.
    19. Grossbard,Shoshana A. (ed.), 2003. "Marriage and the Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521891431, January.
    20. Z. Eylem Gevrek & Deniz Gevrek & Sonam Gupta, 2012. "Culture, Intermarriage, and Immigrant Women's - Labor Supply," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2012-28, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alicia Adserà & Ana Ferrer, 2014. "Immigrants and Demography: Marriage, Divorce, and Fertility," Working Papers 1401, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2014.
    2. Olga Nottmeyer, 2015. "Intermarriage and the economic success of immigrants," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 160-160, June.
    3. Cynthia Bansak & Sarah Pearlman, 2022. "Marriage and immigration enforcement: The impact of Secure Communities on immigrant women," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 351-372, January.
    4. Verdier, Thierry & Zenou, Yves, 2017. "The role of social networks in cultural assimilation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 15-39.
    5. Greenwood, Michael J. & Ward, Zachary, 2015. "Immigration quotas, World War I, and emigrant flows from the United States in the early 20th century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 76-96.
    6. Delia Furtado & Stephen J. Trejo, 2013. "Interethnic marriages and their economic effects," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 15, pages 276-292, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Isabelle Chort & Maëlys Rupelle, 2016. "Determinants of Mexico-U.S. Outward and Return Migration Flows: A State-Level Panel Data Analysis," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1453-1476, October.
    8. Shoshana Grossbard & Victoria Vernon, 2014. "Common law marriage and couple formation," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-26, December.
    9. Grossbard Shoshana Amyra & Vernon Victoria, 2020. "Do immigrants pay a price when marrying natives? Lessons from the US time use survey," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-37, January.
    10. Osea Giuntella, 2016. "Assimilation and Health: Evidence From Linked Birth Records of Second- and Third-Generation Hispanics," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(6), pages 1979-2004, December.
    11. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Arenas-Arroyo, Esther & Wang, Chunbei, 2020. "Is immigration enforcement shaping immigrant marriage patterns?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    12. Patricia A. McManus & Lauren Apgar, 2019. "Parental Origins, Mixed Unions, and the Labor Supply of Second-Generation Women in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(1), pages 49-73, February.
    13. Dan Rodríguez-García, 2015. "Intermarriage and Integration Revisited," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 662(1), pages 8-36, November.
    14. Sukanya Basu, 2017. "Household labor supply and intermarriage of immigrants: differences by gender," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-25, December.
    15. Ho-Po Crystal Wong, 2016. "Ethnic assortative matching in marriage and family outcomes: evidence from the mass migration to the US during 1900–1930," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 817-848, July.
    16. Conover Emily & Khamis Melanie & Pearlman Sarah, 2021. "Gender Imbalances and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Large-Scale Mexican Migration," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, January.
    17. Carlana, Michela & Tabellini, Marco, 2018. "Happily Ever After: Immigration, Natives' Marriage, and Fertility," Working Paper Series rwp18-035, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    18. Darren Lubotsky, 2007. "Chutes or Ladders? A Longitudinal Analysis of Immigrant Earnings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 820-867, October.
    19. Francine Blau, 2015. "Immigrants and gender roles: assimilation vs. culture," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, December.
    20. Valentine Fays & Benoît Mahy & François Rycx & Mélanie Volral, 2021. "Wage discrimination based on the country of birth: do tenure and product market competition matter?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(13), pages 1551-1571, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigration; Sex-ratios; Demographic change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joerap:v:2:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s41996-018-0025-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.