The Impact of Human and Social Capital on the Employment of Haitian Immigrant Women in the U.S. Labor Force: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Despite the emerging focus on women’s migration and economic integration in the host countries, little is known about the participation of Haitian immigrant women in the U.S. labor force. This study examines the effects of nationality and mediating factors including human and social capital on the economic integration of Haitian women in the U.S. labor force. In order to better understand how Haitian women’s economic integration differs from other immigrants from the Caribbean, their personal income, wage income and hours worked were compared with three other groups of immigrant women: Dominicans, Cubans and Jamaicans. This study relies on secondary data from the American Community Survey (ACS, 2007). ACS is a statistical program that was developed to replace the long form of the decennial census in 2010. The data are nationally representative as they represent all 50 states including District of Columbia, Puerto-Rico and all metropolitan areas. The sample size used was (N=3908) for Haitian women, (N=5540) for Dominicans, (N= 5057) for Jamaicans and (N=8696) for Cubans. Findings indicated that the mean differences of Haitian women when compared to Cubans (-3.493), Dominicans (-1.248) and Jamaicans (-.544) were all negative. This implied that the other groups of women had better employment status than Haitian women. Moreover, since the difference was highest with the Cubans, it can also be drawn that Cubans have the best employment status among the groups.