Socioeconomic Differentials among Single-Racial and Multi-Racial Japanese Americans

Isao Takei, University of Texas at Austin
Arthur Sakamoto, University of Texas at Austin
Hyeyoung Woo, University of Texas at Austin

In spite of their steady increasing presence in the U.S. population, persons with multi-racial identities have been an ignored topic in demography. We examine hourly wage differentials across different groups of Japanese-origin persons (Nikkei) to entertain the diversity of this population. Specifically, we assess wage differentials across single-racial (foreign-born and native-born) and multi-racial (Japanese ancestry with non-Hispanic white, Chinese, black, and white with Japanese ancestry) Japanese Americans by gender, with a native-born non-Hispanic white as the reference category. Data from the 2000 5% PUMS are used to conduct the analysis. The results from multiple linear regression analyses rather support the segmented assimilation than classical assimilation perspectives, in that the single-racial persons tend to attain higher wages than their multi-racial counterparts across gender, partly due to their higher levels of schooling. Especially for men, there is no net effect of ethnic group on wages after controlling for years of schooling.