ABSTRACT
The earnings of foreign-born adult white men, as reported in the 1970 Census of Population, are analyzed through comparisons with the native born and among the foreign born by country of origin, years in the United States, and citizenship. Immigrants to the United States are likely to have less of the characteristics associated with higher earnings than the native born. Economic theory suggests that migration in response to economic incentives is generally more profitable for the more able and more highly motivated. The empirical analysis of the effect of Americanization on earnings uses the human capital earnings function as the point of departure. About two-thirds of the foreign-born adult white men in the United States in 1970 were naturalized citizens, and the remaining one-third were aliens. The significantly lower earnings of immigrants from Mexico appears to be a Mexican ethnic-group effect rather than simply a characteristic of first-generation Mexican-Americans.
