ABSTRACT
Adaptation to the host country is the goal of the immigration process. Immigrants’ level of adaptation is usually indicated by their economic success, welfare dependency, occupation attainment, and material well-being in the host society (Zhou, 1997). Immigrants are more likely than the native population to encounter economic difficulties such as unemployment or low income, due to the fact that some of their capabilities such as professional or language skills might not be perfectly transferable in the new society. The length of unemployment and the time spent looking for jobs impact immigrants’ economic attainment considerably. As a result, many immigrants’ earnings are lower than natives and thus they live in poverty. For example, in the U.S. in 2001, 16.1% of foreign-born people were living below the poverty line (compared with 11% of natives) (Schmidley, 2001). Among the foreign-born, the poverty rate ranged from 9.9% for those who had lived in the United States for 20 years and longer, to 23.5% for those who had lived in the United States for less than 10 years (Schmidley, 2001). In 1999, the median income for households with a foreign-born head-of-household was $36,048, compared to $41,383 for households with a native head-of-household. The poverty rate was 9.1% for naturalized citizens, compared to 21.3% for non-citizens.
