The Mexican‐American worker: Assimilation, bias, and discrimination, 1940–2019

• Published in: Social science quarterly Vol. 103; no. 6; pp. 1401 - 1423
• Main Authors: Verdugo, Richard R., Swanson, David A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-11-2022
• Subjects: Assimilation; Bias; Debates; Discrimination; Earnings; Earnings function; Hispanic Americans; Human capital; Immigrants; Labor market; Mexican Americans; Migrant workers; Parsing; Statistical bias; Theorists; Workers
• ISSN: 0038-4941; 1540-6237
• DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.13209

Objective
There are two fundamental arguments about why Mexican Americans have failed to be assimilated. Human capital theorists argue that it is due to their inferior human capital. In contrast, other theorists argue that discrimination is the primary reason. Our proposition is that both arguments are better served if data parse out Mexican immigrants. Failure to do so creates statistical bias regarding the “true” status of Mexican‐American workers and thus the Mexican‐American population.
Method
We estimate an earnings function among three Mexican ancestry groups: Mexican‐American workers, Mexican immigrant workers, and a co‐mingled sample of Mexican‐American and Mexican immigrant workers over the period from 1940 to 2017.
Results
Our findings suggest important differences in the earnings process between Mexican‐American workers and Mexican immigrant workers. Moreover, we also find important differences in discrimination between both groups of workers.
Conclusion
If the focus of future research is the labor market experiences of Mexican Americans, care should be made in parsing out Mexican immigrant workers from their sample; otherwise, results would be biased and conclusions inaccurate.