A significant number of immigrants fail to realise their full potential in the US labour markets, as evidenced by those working in occupations requiring skill levels far below their own level of education. While previous studies have studied immigrant underemployment with a focus on individual labour force characteristics, the spatial dimensions of immigrant underemployment have been largely overlooked. Using microdata from the 2006–2010 American Community Survey and a multilevel research design, this study examines the interaction of metropolitan labour market characteristics with individual labour force’s underemployment experiences, and explores how these interaction effects differ between the foreign-born and the native-born. Results suggest that the probability of individual labour force’s underemployment within any metropolitan area is highly contingent on metropolitan labour market characteristics including ethnic diversity, the proportion of its foreign-born population, the economic structure, and the level of educational attainment of the labour force, in addition to individual characteristics.
AlesinaASpolaoreEWacziargR (2000) Economic integration and political disintegration. American Economic Review90: 1276–1296.
2.
Badillo-AmadorLGarcia-SanchezAVilaLE (2005) Mismatches in the spanish labor market: Education vs. competence match. International Advances in Economic Research11(1): 93–109.
3.
BatalovaJLowellBL (2007) Immigrant professionals in the United States. Society44(2): 26–31.
4.
BatalovaJFixMCreticosPA (2008) Uneven Progress: The Employment Pathways of Skilled Immigrants in the United States. Washington DC: Migration Policy Institute, pp. 1–65.
5.
BaumSMitchellW (2008) Adequate employment, underutilization and unemployment: An analysis of labour force outcomes for Australian youth. Australian Journal of Labor Economics11(3): 187–202.
6.
BaumSMitchellW (2010) People, space and place: A multidimensional analysis of unemployment in metropolitan labour markets. Geographical Research48(1): 13–23.
7.
BaumSMitchellW (2011) Using a multi-level framework to understand individual fortunes: An illustration for individual labour market outcomes. International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy7(1,2,3): 56–71.
8.
BaumSBillAMitchellW (2008) Labour underutilisation in metropolitan labour markets: Individual characteristics, personal circumstances and local labour markets. Urban Studies45(5/6): 1193–1216.
9.
BeggsJJVillemezWJArnoldR (1997). Black population concentration and black-white inequality: Expanding the consideration of place and space effects. Social Forces76: 65–91.
10.
BohonSA (2010) Occupational attainment of latino immigrants in the United States. Geographical Review95(2): 249–266.
11.
BorjasGJ (2006) Native internal migration and the labor market impact of immigration. Journal of Human Resources41(2): 221–258.
12.
BoundJHolzerHJ (1993) Industrial shifts, skill levels and the labor market for white and black males. The Review of Economics and Statistics75: 387–396.
13.
CantanzariteL (2003) Occupational context and wage labor competition of new immigrant latinos with minorities and whites. Review of Black Political Economy31(1–2): 77–94.
14.
CarneiroAFortunaNVarejãoJ (2011) Immigrants at new destinations: How they fare and why. Journal of Population Economics25(3): 1165–1185.
15.
ChiswickBRMillerPW (2008) Occupational attainment and immigrant economic progress in Australia. The Economic Record84(9): 45–56.
16.
ChiswickBRMillerPW (2009) The international transferability of immigrants’ human capital. Economics of Education Review28(2): 162–169.
17.
ChiswickBRMillerPW (2010) The effects of educational-occupational mismatch on immigrant earnings in Australia, with international comparisons. International Migration Review44(4): 869–898.
18.
CohenPN (1998) Black concentration effects on black–white and gender inequality: Multilevel analysis for us metropolitan areas. Social Forces77: 207–229.
19.
De JongGFMadambaAB (2001) A double disadvantage? Minority group, immigrant status, and underemployment in the United States. Social Science Quarterly82(1): 117–130.
20.
ElliottJ (2004) The work of cities: Underemployment and urban change in late 20th century America. Journal of Policy Development and Research7: 107–133.
21.
EttlingerNKwonS (1994) Comparative analysis of U.S. urban labor markets: Asian immigrant groups in New York and Los Angeles. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie85(5): 417–433.
22.
FeldmanDC (1996) The nature, antecedents and consequences of underemployment. Journal of Management22(3): 385–407.
23.
FineSNevoB (2008) Too smart for their own good? A study of perceived cognitive overqualification in the workforce. The International Journal of Human Resource Management19: 346–355.
24.
FlynnN (2003) The differential effect of labor market context on marginal employment outcomes. Sociological Spectrum23(3): 305–330.
25.
FortuijnJMusterdSOstendorfW (1998) International migration and ethnic segregation: Impacts on urban areas – Introduction. Urban Studies35(3): 367–370.
26.
FriedbergR (2000) You can’t take it with you? Immigrant assimilation and the portability of human capital. Journal of Labor Economics18: 221–251.
27.
GreenGPSanchezL (2007) Does manufacturing still matter?Population Research and Policy Review26(5–6): 529–551.
28.
HallMSingerAJongGFD. (2011) The Geography of Immigrant Skills: Educational Profiles of Metropolitan Areas. Washington DC: Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings Institution, June, pp. 1–31.
29.
HamiltonLK (2011) A Model of Perceived Underemployment Among Immigrants in Canada. The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, The University of Western Ontario, pp. 1–237.
30.
HartogJ (2000) Over-education and earnings: Where are we, where should we go?Economics of Education Review19(2): 131–147.
31.
HudsonM (2002) Modeling the probability of niche employment: Exploring workforce segmentation in metropolitan Atlanta. Urban Geography23(6): pp. 528–559.
32.
JensenLFindeisJLHsuW. (1999) Slipping into and out of underemployment: Another disadvantage for nonmetropolitan workers. Rural Sociology64: 417–438.
33.
JensenLSlackT (2003) Underemployment in America: Measurement and evidence. American Journal of Community Psychology32(1): 21–31.
34.
JibouR (1988) Ethnic hegemony and the Japanese of California. Sociological Review53(3): 353–367.
35.
KhanLJMorrowPC (1991) Objective and subjective underemployment relationships to job satisfaction. Journal of Business Research22: 211–218.
36.
LichterDT (1988) Racial differences in underemployment in American cities. American Journal of Sociology93(4): 771.
37.
LichterDTJohnsonKM (2009) Immigrant gateways and hispanic migration to new destinations. International Migration Review43(3): 496–518.
38.
LoganJRAlbaRDDillM. (2000) Ethnic segmentation in the American metropolis: Increasing divergence in economic incorporation,1980–1990. International Migration Review34: 98–132.
39.
LoganJRAlbaRDMcNultyTL (1994) Ethnic economies in metropolitan regions: Miami and beyond. Social Forces72: 691–724.
40.
LoganJRStultsBJFarleyR (2004) Segregation of minorities in the metropolis: Two decades of change. Demography41: 1–22.
41.
McCallL (2001) Sources of racial wage inequality in metropolitan labour markets: Racial, ethnic, and gender differences. American Sociological Review66: 520–541.
42.
MadambaABDe JongGF (1997) Job mismatch among Asians in the United States: Ethnic group comparisons. Social Science Quarterly78(2): 524–542.
43.
MenahemG (1999) Urban restructuring, polarisation and immigrants’ opportunities: The case of Russian immigrants in Tel-Aviv. Urban Studies36(9): 1551–1568.
44.
NakhaieMRKazemipurA (2013) Social capital, employment and occupational status of the new immigrants in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration14(3): 419–437.
45.
PainterGYuZ (2010) Immigrants and housing markets in mid-size metropolitan areas. International Migration Review44(2): 442–476.
46.
PichlerF (2011) Success on European labor markets: A cross-national comparison of attainment between immigrant and majority populations. International Migration Review45(4): 938–978.
47.
RaudenbushSWBrykAS (2002) Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. Sage Publications, Inc.
48.
ReingoldD (1999) Social networks and the employment problem of the urban poor. Urban Studies36(11): 1907–1932.
49.
RosenfeldMTiendaM (1999) Mexican immigration, occupational niches, and labor-market competition: Evidence from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta, 1970–1990. In: BeanFDBell-RoseS (eds) Immigration and Opportunity. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 65–105.
RupasinghaAGoetzSJFreshwaterD (2002) Social and institutional factors as determinants of economic growth: Evidence from the United States counties. Papers in Regional Science81(2): 139–155.
52.
SassenS (2006) Cities in a World Economy. Thousand Oaks CA: Pine Forge Press.
53.
SaxenianA (2000) Silicon Valley’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs. San Diego CA: University of California, Working Paper 15, pp. 1–30.
54.
SaxenianA (2006) The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy. Boston MA: Harvard University Press.
55.
SingerA (2004). The Rise of New Immigrant Gateways. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, pp. 1-36.
56.
TeixeiraCLoLTrueloveM (2007) Immigrant entrepreneurship, institutional discrimination, and implications for public policy: A case study in Toronto. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy25(2): 176–193.
57.
Van der WaalJ (2011) Post-industrialisation, immigration and unemployment: How and why the impact of immigration on unemployment differs between Dutch cities. Urban Studies49(8): 1711–1724.
58.
Van HamMMulderCHooimeijerP (2001) Local underemployment and the discouraged worker effect. Urban Studies38(10): 1733–1751.
59.
VarmaR (2004) Asian Americans: Achievements mask challenges. Asian Journal of Social Science32(2): 290–307.
60.
WadhwaVSaxenianAFreemanRB. (2009). Losing the World’s Best and Brightest: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part V. Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, pp. 1–19.
61.
WaldingerRD (1996) Still the Promised Land. Harvard University Press.
62.
WangQ (2004) Labour market concentration of Asian ethnic groups in US metropolitan areas: A disaggregated study. Population, Space and Place10(6): 479–494.
63.
WangQ (2010) Immigration and ethnic entrepreneurship: A comparative study in the United States. Growth and Change41(3): 430–458.
64.
WilkinsRK (2004) The Extent and Consequences of Underemployment in Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, pp. 1–47.
65.
WrightREllisM (1996) Immigrants and the changing racial/ethnic division of labor in New York city. Urban Geography17: 317–353.
66.
WrightREllisM (2000) The ethnic and gender division of labor compared among immigrants to Los Angeles. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research24: 583–601.
