Double Disadvantage among Immigrant Women in the U.S. Highly Skilled Labor Market

Jeanne Batalova, University of California, Irvine and Migration Policy Institute

While the social-economic characteristics and labor market outcomes of the highly skilled workers have become the subject of recent inquires, little research has been devoted to the experiences of 49 percent of professional labor force –women. By employing the U.S. Census 2000 data, my research addresses two research questions: 1) Do immigrant highly skilled women face greater hardships in the labor market compared to other groups (immigrant men, native-born men and women); 2) What factors tend to aggravate and alleviate these economic disadvantages? In particular, are there significant variations in labor market experiences of women-professionals by race/ethnicity as well as local labor markets? This project will contribute to the limited literature on highly skilled migration as well as to the literature on the influences of gender, race/ethnicity, nativity, and their interactions on socioeconomic inequality.