Immigrant youth in the labor market

The past two decades witnessed unprecedented growth in the number of children of immigrants living in the United States. The successful socioeconomic adaptation of these youth to the United States will be determined, in part, by their early work experiences. The authors use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to evaluate differences in the work participation of youth enrolled in high school by immigrant generation. They find that immigrant youth work significantly less during middle and high school than their native-born peers. However, these native-immigrant differences in youth labor-market participation decline as high school graduation approaches. Native-immigrant differences in youth labor-market participation partially reflect differences in the racial-ethnic compositions of first-, second-, and third+-generation cohorts. Beyond race and/or ethnicity, native-immigrant differences in youth labor-market participation also stem from systematic differences in their family socioeconomic characteristics, school orientations, social networks, and labor-market opportunities.