Occupational Disparity in a Migrant Metropolis: A Case Study of Atlanta

Robert M. Adelman, Georgia State University
Hui-shien Tsao, University at Albany, State University of New York

As the populations of immigrant and migrant groups swell in Atlanta, Georgia, the nature of race and ethnic relations in the metropolis, once historically dominated by a black-white dichotomy, is changing. We use the 2000 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) for the Atlanta metropolitan area to study the occupational distribution of immigrants, return migrants, primary migrants, and non-migrants. The results indicate that white return, primary, and non-migrants are more likely to work in a professional job than members of all other groups, that black return and primary migrants are over-represented in office and administrative occupations, that foreign-born Asians are more likely to work in professional occupations than foreign-born Hispanics, and that foreign-born Hispanics are very over-represented in construction jobs. By comparing different types of migrant groups, including non-migrants, and by taking into account race, ethnicity, and nativity, we more clearly delineate economic stratification, and economic adaptation, in the Atlanta metropolitan region.