Summer 2006
Susan C. Pearce
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Below is the executive summary for this publication.
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The migration of women to the United States is characterized by two contradictory trends. On the one hand, over the past 20 years women have comprised a growing share of new legal immigrants admitted to the country, a trend which mirrors the feminization of migration in Europe, Africa, and Latin America since 1960. On the other hand, since 1970 women have constituted a declining share of the U.S. foreign-born population as a whole. This most likely is due to the fact that the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants entering the country each year are predominantly male, although the numbers of undocumented women are on the rise. Reflecting the overall increase in both legal and undocumented immigration by men and women alike in recent decades, nearly half of all foreign-born women in the United States entered the country since 1990.
As with their male counterparts, today’s immigrant women are most likely to come from Mexico, China, India, or the Philippines, and to settle in California, New York, Texas, or Florida. Women significantly outnumber men among immigrants from Germany, the Philippines, and South Korea. Conversely, men significantly outnumber women among Mexican, Salvadoran, and Indian immigrants. Immigrant women today are more likely than in the past to be single, to have few children, and to join the labor force. The highest rates of employment are found among women from Jamaica and the Philippines. Foreign-born women are much less likely to have graduated from high school than native-born women, but nearly as likely to have completed college and slightly more likely to have a doctorate or professional degree. The top two occupations among both foreign-born and native-born women are “office and administrative support,” followed by “sales and related,” while foreign-born men are concentrated in “construction and extraction,” followed by “production”. About a third of newly admitted legal immigrants who are women work in professional fields.
Although changing gender roles have opened up new educational, professional, and personal opportunities for women in many parts of the world, immigrant women often find the United States to be especially liberating in this regard when compared to their home countries. However, gender disparities persist. Foreign-born women in the United States earn lower wages than either native-born women or foreign-born and native-born men. Among the recipients of employment-based visas, women are far more likely than men to be “dependent” visa holders (the spouses or children of workers receiving visas) as opposed to “principal” visa holders (the workers themselves). And immigrant women are more likely than immigrant men to enter the country as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens through the family-based immigration system. Nevertheless, modern immigrant women in the United States—like modern native-born women—have entered a greater range of occupations and achieved higher levels of independence than at any time in the past
Among the findings of this report:
Patterns of Female Migration
The proportion of new legal immigrants admitted into the United States who were female rose from 49.8 percent in Fiscal Year (FY) 1985 to 54.5 percent in FY 2004.
The proportion of the adult foreign-born population in the United States that is comprised of women declined from 54.6 percent in 1970 to 50.4 percent in 2004.
Visas and Classes of Admission
In FY 2004, 47.3 percent of all female immigrants legally admitted into the United States entered the country through the immediate-relative category of the family-based immigration system, compared to 37.6 percent of male immigrants.
In FY 2004, 26.8 percent of women who received employment-based visas were principal visa holders (compared to 73.2 percent who were dependents of a principal visa holder), while 65.3 percent of men receiving employment- based visas were principals (vs. 34.7 percent who were dependents).
Countries of Origin
>As of 2004, the largest number of adult foreign-born women came from Mexico—four-and-a-half times more than came from China, which was the number two sending country. The remaining top-ten sending countries were the Philippines, India, Vietnam, South Korea, Cuba, El Salvador, Germany, and Canada.
As of 2004, the proportion of the adult foreign-born population comprised of women was largest among Germans (65 percent), Filipinos (59 percent), and South Koreans (56 percent)—and lowest among Mexicans (44 percent), Salvadorans (46 percent), and Indians (47 percent).
Places of Residence
As of 2004, 28 percent of all adult foreign-born women lived in California. The remaining top-ten states of residence for foreign-born women were New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Arizona, Washington, and Virginia.
Presence in the Labor Market
In 2004, 54 percent of adult foreign-born women were in the labor force, with the highest employment rates found among women from Jamaica (84 percent) and the Philippines (80 percent).
Occupations
As of 2004, 15.7 percent of all employed, adult foreignborn women worked in “office and administrative support,” followed by “sales and related” at 11 percent.
In FY 2004, 31.6 percent of all employed, adult women who legally immigrated to the United States worked in “professional and technical fields,” followed by “service” (19.9 percent) and “operators, fabricators, and laborers” (13 percent).
Wages
In 2003, 61.7 percent of foreign-born women earned less than $25,000, compared to 54.4 percent of native-born women and 47.8 percent of foreign-born men.
In 2003, 5.2 percent of foreign-born women earned $75,000 or more, compared to 4.7 percent of native-born women and 10.8 percent of foreign-born men.
Education
In 2000, 37.9 percent of foreign-born women lacked a high-school diploma (compared to 17 percent of native-born women), while 20.3 percent of foreign-born women had a bachelor’s degree or more (compared to 21.4 percent of native-born women).
In 2000, foreign-born women were about as likely as native-born women to have a doctorate (0.8 percent vs. 0.5 percent) or a professional degree (1.9 percent vs. 1.2 percent).
Marital Status and Family Size
In 2004, 62.3 percent of foreign-born women were married, compared to 52.8 percent of native-born women. And 43.7 percent of married immigrant women had no children, while another 42.5 percent had just one or two.
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