RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN THE TEMPO OF ASSIMILATION FOR WHITE AND BLACK AFRICAN-BORN MEN IN THE UNITED STATES.

Understanding how immigrants assimilate to the U.S. labor market over time is important, but measuring the true effect of time is difficult. We know little about the assimilation of African immigrants, a group that has recently begun to enter the US in large numbers. The African foreign-born are unique among US immigrants in their racial diversity, with substantial numbers of both Black and White migrants. This paper examines the effect of duration on African immigrant men's earnings between 1990 and 2000. Using Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) 5% and 1% sample data from the 1990 and 2000 censuses, it applies a double-cohort method of analysis (Myers and Lee, 1996) that avoids problems presented by trying to measure age-period-cohort effects. The paper examines the differential tempo of assimilation for Black and White African immigrant men. While White African-born men's earnings surpass those of White US-born men over time, Black African-born men continue to experience a disadvantage in earnings that cannot be explained by human capital characteristics. Additionally, while some age-and-migration cohorts of Black African-born men experience steeper increases in earnings over time compared to White African-born men, racial inequities in earnings remain, suggesting that racism continues to depress the earnings of Black African immigrant men despite their advances over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]