The Income Color Line: The Significance of Race for New Immigrants in the United States

Abstract

Using data from the first wave of the New Immigrant Survey, I examine differences in personal income—combined wage/salary, tips, professional practice, and self-employment—among new immigrants in the United States based on skin color classification, as determined by survey interviewers (N = 1,589). Additionally, I examine whether income differences support one, more than one, or none of the three most prominent theoretical perspectives on the racial color line: white/non-white, black/non-black, and the tri-racial divide. First, I test the hypothesis that income decreases as skin color “darkens” on a continuous scale from 0 to 10. Results from an OLS regression analysis do not support this assertion. Next, I test whether gender has a moderating effect on skin color (as a continuous variable) and income. Results show that it does not. However, regression results partially support the hypothesis that non-blacks earn more than blacks when gender is included as a moderating variable. Specifically, results suggest that non-black females earn the least, non-black males the most, and black males and females in between. Next, I test the hypothesis that whites earn more than non-whites, on average, followed by the hypothesis that an intermediate racial group of non-black immigrants (“honorary whites”) earn more than black immigrants but less than white immigrants. Results do not support either of these hypotheses.