Immigration Policy Center Immigrant Women Report

The migration of women to the United States is  characterized by two contradictory trends. On the one hand, over the past 20  years women have comprised a growing share of new legal immigrants admitted  into the country, a trend which mirrors the feminization of migration in  Europe, Africa, and Latin America. On the other hand, women have constituted  a declining share of the U.S. foreign-born population as a whole since 1970.  This most likely is due to the fact that the majority of undocumented  immigrants entering the country are men, although the numbers of undocumented  women are on the rise.

As with their male counterparts, todays immigrant women are most likely to  come from Mexico, China, India, or the Philippines, and to settle in  California, New York, Texas, or Florida. Women significantly outnumber men  among immigrants from Germany, the Philippines, and South Korea. Conversely,  men significantly outnumber women among Mexican, Salvadoran, and Indian  immigrants. Immigrant women today are more likely than in the past to be  single, to have few children, and to join the labor force. The highest rates  of employment are found among women from Jamaica and the Philippines.  Foreign-born women are much less likely to have graduated from high school  than native-born women, but nearly as likely to have completed college and  slightly more likely to have a doctorate or professional degree. The top two  occupations among both foreign-born and native-born women are “office  and administrative support,” followed by “sales and related.”  About a third of newly admitted legal immigrants who are women work in  professional fields.

Although changing gender roles have opened up new opportunities for women  in the United States, gender disparities persist. Foreign-born women earn  lower wages than native-born women. Among the recipients of employment-based  visas, women are far more likely than men to be “dependent” visa  holders (the spouses or children of workers receiving visas) as opposed to  “principal” visa holders (the workers themselves). And immigrant  women are more likely than immigrant men to enter the country as immediate  relatives of U.S. citizens through the family-based immigration system.  Nevertheless, modern immigrant women have entered a greater range of  occupations and achieved higher levels of independence than at any time in  the past.

Among the findings of this report:

• As of 2004, the       proportion of the adult foreign-born population comprised of women was       largest among Germans (65 percent), Filipinos (59 percent), and South       Koreans (56 percent) and lowest among Mexicans (44 percent), Salvadorans       (46 percent), and Indians (47 percent).

• In 2004, 54 percent of       adult foreign-born women were in the labor force, with the highest       employment rates found among women from Jamaica (84 percent) and the       Philippines (80 percent).

• As of 2004, 15.7       percent of all employed, adult foreign-born women worked in “office       and administrative support,” followed by “sales and       related” at 11 percent.

• In FY 2004, 31.6       percent of all employed, adult women who legally immigrated to the       United States worked in “professional and technical fields,”       followed by “service” (19.9 percent) and “operators,       fabricators, and laborers” (13 percent).

• In 2000, 37.9 percent       of foreign-born women lacked a high-school diploma (compared to 17       percent of native-born women), while 20.3 percent of foreign-born women       had a bachelors degree or more (compared to 21.4 percent of native-born       women).

• In 2000, foreign-born       women were about as likely as native-born women to have a doctorate (0.8       percent vs. 0.5 percent) or a professional degree (1.9 percent vs. 1.2       percent).

Read the entire report at: http://www.ailf.org/ipc/im_women_summer06.pdf