Age-at-Arrival's Effects on Asian Immigrants’ Socioeconomic Outcomes in Canada and the U.S.

Abstract

Age‐at‐arrival is a key predictor of many immigrant outcomes, but discussion continues over how to best measure and study its effects. This research replicates and extends a pioneering study by Myers, Gao, and Emeka [International Migration Review (2009) 43:205–229] on age‐at‐arrival effects among Mexican immigrants in the U.S. to see if similar results hold for other immigrant groups and in other countries. We examine data from the 2000 U.S. census and 2006 American Community Survey, and 1991, 2001, and 2006 Canadian censuses to assess several measures of age‐at‐arrival effects on Asian immigrants’ socioeconomic outcomes. We confirm several of Myers et al.’s key findings, including the absence of clear breakpoints in age‐at‐arrival effects for all outcomes and the superiority of continuous measures of age‐at‐arrival. Additional analysis reveals different age‐at‐arrival effects by gender and Asian ethnicity. We suggest guidelines, supplementing those offered by Myers et al., for measuring and studying age‐at‐arrival’s effects on immigrant outcomes.

Beyond the ballot box: age-at-arrival, civic institutions and political participation among Latinos

“…Although previous research has noted the importance of age-at-arrival in shaping the socioeconomic adaptations of first-generation immigrants (Rumbaut 2004;Myers, Gao, and Emeka 2009;Lee and Edmonston 2011), legal consciousness among the undocumented (Abrego 2011) and propensity to naturalise (Peters, Vink, and Schmeets 2016), these studies have not examined the gradient of age-at-arrival on political participation. This study extends this literature by shifting attention away from cultural and socioeconomic dimensions into the realm of politics.…”

Age at immigration and crime in Stockholm using sibling comparisons

“…It is important to replicate or refute these findings and come to a general conclusion as to whether or not age at immigration and contextual factors play a role in how children of immigrants acculturate. A lot of energy has gone into understanding how best to measure age at immigration (Lee and Edmonston, 2011;Myers et al, 2009). Taking a step back and figuring out whether or not this construct has a similar impact across different domains is important for theory and policy.…”

Defining difference: the role of immigrant generation and race in American and British immigration studies

“…For Latinos, Myers and colleagues suggest splitting the population into people who arrived before age 6, between 6 and 9, between 10 and 12, and between 13 and 17. Lee and Edmonston (2011) recommend a split at 5, 9 and 12. Both analyses find strong effects on host country language attainment and educational attainment for age at arrival.…”