Immigrant Wealth Accumulation

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Much of the research on immigrants' economic well-being demonstrates a disproportionate concentration of immigrants near the bottom of American society. An often neglected aspect within immigrant economic well- being is wealth or net worth. We propose to use data from the 2001 and 2004 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the first round of the New Immigrant Survey (NIS). We apply segmented assimilation theory to explore immigrants' integration processes and highlight how racial/ethnic realities in America provide both opportunities and constraints for immigrants of different racial/ethnic backgrounds. Our emphasis is on racial/ethnic wealth inequalities while taking into account racial/ethnic differences in pre-immigration characteristics and initial legal status. Our first task is to use SIPP data to compare immigrants' wealth accumulation with that of U.S.-born non-Hispanic whites and their U.S.-born co- ethnic peers. Then we narrow our focus to analyze the NIS immigrants admitted to legal permanent residence in 2003. Our second task explores how immigrants' race/ethnicity is associated with the likelihood of wealth accumulation net of pre-immigration characteristics, initial legal status, length of U.S. stay, and other American experience variables. We use multinomial logistic regressions to analyze the likelihood of immigrants with negative, zero, or positive wealth. Our third task is to apply quantile regressions to model different types of wealth accumulation including financial, non-financial wealth, and U.S. or foreign wealth. Our final task is to explore how immigrants' investment in wealth type - U.S. versus foreign and financial versus non-financial - is associated with immigrants' race/ethnicity and other characteristics. This study will further our understanding of how long-lasting racial/ethnic inequalities in America influence integration patterns of diverse immigrant groups. An examination of immigrants' investment by type of wealth will also shed light on racial/ethnic differences in integration patterns. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Much of the research on immigrants' economic well-being demonstrates a disproportionate concentration of immigrants near the bottom of American society. An often neglected aspect within immigrant economic well- being is wealth or net worth. We use data from the 2001 and 2004 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the first round of the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) to compare immigrants' wealth accumulation with that of U.S.-born non-Hispanic whites and their U.S.-born co-ethnic peers and then examine the association between immigrants' race/ethnicity and wealth accumulation net of pre-immigration characteristics, initial legal status, and other American experiences. The insight we gain from this study will help further understand immigrants' incorporation into American society.