The Role of Father’s Occupation on Intergenerational Educational and Occupational Mobility: The Case of Second‐Generation Chinese Americans in New York¹

Abstract

A considerable body of research has found a positive relationship between parents' socioeconomic status and children's educational achievement and attainment. The predictive role of parents' socioeconomic status generally applies for most racial and ethnic groups, but that association does not always hold for groups that exhibit high levels of education, such as Asian Americans. This article considers the role of parents' education and occupation on children's educational and occupational attainment for Chinese Americans aged 18-32. The results corroborate the positive link between parents' socioeconomic status and children's educational and occupational attainments. Children of professionals command an educational and occupational advantage over children of entrepreneurs and children of manual workers. Yet, the children of entrepreneurs attend selective colleges and obtain professional occupations in proportions closely following those of the children of professionals. Although the educational attainments between the fathers who worked as entrepreneurs and those fathers engaged in manual work were comparable, it was the children of entrepreneurs who surpassed the children of manual workers with respect to educational and occupational achievement and attainment. This suggests that immigrant entrepreneurship contributes in the upward educational and occupational mobility of the children of entrepreneurs.

Personal Traits, Familial Characteristics and Success in the Labor Market: A Survey Study of Christian Labor Force in Pakistan

“…Although all four turn out insignificant for this study, MO, FO, and FE carry theoretically right signs. Therefore, overall findings of the logistical regression estimates reported in Table 4 conform with the earlier studies which suggest positive relationship of higher SES of parental family with occupational success of the children [Conley and Glauber (2007); Hannah et al(1986); Wilson and Portes (1980); Kim and Kulkarni (2009); Abada et al(2009); Hirschman (1982); Cogner and Donnellan (2007)]. Other variables representing parental family's socioeconomic profile are earning members in parental family, EMP, and dependents in parental family, DPF, both carrying significant estimated coefficients with negative and positive signs respectively, as listed in Table 4.…”

“…Although a lower corresponding ratio, 1:1.09, is observed for the other category of workers, this result is also significant at 5% level of significance. The overall result supports the earlier findings by Kim and Kulkarni (2009), Maxim (1992) and Schneider and Lee (1990).…”

“…Also, these two variables serve as proxy for income of the parental home, because majority of the respondents failed to provide a consistent and reliable corresponding measure. Finally, working hours and experience often underscore the size of earnings [Constant and Massey (2005)], while age, education, marital status, gender and parents' education are widely used variables in similar studies [Wong and Hirschman (1983); Sandefur and Pahari (1989); Constant and Massey(2005); Hazans et al(2008); Kim and Kulkarni(2009); Abada et al(2009)].…”

“…7 Finally, as mentioned earlier, the broad base for the research design of this study remains the theory of social causation which highlights the combined influence of social and economic conditions for effective performance and development of an individual [Conger and Donnellan (2007)]. Therefore, parental SES of the members of a minority group plays imperative part in their educational [Borjas (1987)] and other personal attainments including ability to pursue a rewarding occupation in the labour market [Sirin (2005)] and enhanced opportunities for upward social mobility [Kim and Kulkarni (2009)].…”

Does an Immigrant Background Ameliorate Racial Disadvantage? The Socioeconomic Attainments of Second-Generation African Americans

“…Prior research has extensively investigated the disadvantages of African Americans in the labor force (e.g., Damaske, 2009; Grodsky and Pager, 2001; Kim, 2009; Maume, 2004; Western and Pettit, 2005) and in U.S. society generally (e.g., Kasinitz, 2008; Massey and Denton, 1993; Oliver and Shapiro, 1995; Roxburgh, 2009). However, with a few notable exceptions (Dodoo, 1997; Dodoo and Takyi, 2002; Kalmijn, 1996; Kasinitz, 1992; Massey et al, 2007; Waters, 1994), scholars have been much less interested in immigrant African Americans and their second‐generation offspring.…”