Immigration status and the salaries of Asian chemists in the United States

Purpose - In this research, we examine the effects of immigration status on the Asian-white wage gap of one STEM profession, chemistry. Asians chemists are classified into four groups based on immigration status: Native born Asian citizens, naturalized Asian citizens, Asian with permanent visas, and Asians with temporary visas. Design/methodology/approach - Data for this study were obtained from the American Chemical Society (ACS) 2010 census of its membership. Only white and Asian men and women were included in our sample. The final sample consisted of 12,705 male chemists and 4,233 women chemists working full-time in industry. Findings - It was found that the wage gap between Asians and whites increases with the recency of immigration. That is, the wage gap is larger for Asian immigrants with visas. The authors discuss the factors that may explain this wage gap. Research limitations/implications - It was not possible to distinguish Asians in the sample by nationality. Practical implications - Social policy cannot effectively address the inequities between Asians and whites without a better understanding of the impact of immigration. Originality/value - Most recent research on the Asian-white earning gap examines immigration in the context of place of education. In this paper, the authors go beyond this practice by examining immigration in the context of citizenship status.