Male Immigrants Are in the Minority
The image of the immigrant to America as a male breadwinner seeking opportunity is still pervasive, but it hasn’t been accurate for decades, according to a new study of immigration patterns conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Affairs. The study, titled “Female Predominance of Immigration to the United States Since 1930: A First Look,” found that women have dominated legal immigration to the United States for the past 50 years. The most typical new American is a woman or a little girl.
Between 1820, when government figures on immigration were first collected, and 1930, the majority of immigrants were men motivated by economic opportunity. But for the last half a century, working-age males account for only a third of immigrants to America.
Factors in accounting for the preponderance of women have included quota laws and wars, the authors of the study said. Numerical quotas on immigrants adopted in the 1920s have changed over the years, but have consistently favored admission to the United States for the foreign spouses and children of Americans in the interests of keeping nuclear families together. American men and male resident aliens have a “persistent tendency” to marry abroad, the Labor Department report on the study said. Between 1972 and 1979, the wives and children of these men accounted for 90% of the sex differential in immigration. Wives of U.S. citizens make up for 10% of all recent immigrants.
The quota laws favored women by giving preferential treatment to wives. This sex discrimination in immigration law was outlawed by the McCarren Walter Act in 1952, but the Labor Department found that women continued to be the majority of immigrants.
Effect of Wars
While wars that sent millions of American young men to Europe, Japan, Korea and Vietnam are an obvious source of foreign brides who came to the United States, the study found a less obvious effect of wars on immigration patterns. “Foreign-born wives and children of U.S. servicemen are an unrecognized source of ‘new seed’ immigration,” the report said. The postwar immigrations of wives and children of servicemen often came from countries that had no previous immigrant ties to the Unioted States. These “new seed” immigrant war brides formed unprecedented ties between America and their homelands, generating new streams of immigrants from their countries.
A significant number of recent immigrants are women from countries with a peacetime U.S. military presence, including West Germany, the Philippines, Japan, Korea and Thailand.
More Girls Adopted
The study also found that the very old and the very young immigrants are more likely to be female. U.S. citizens adopt more girls than boys from overseas. A preliminary look into the reasons indicates that there are more girls available for adoption from abroad and that U.S. parents who adopt seem to prefer adopting girls.
Of those older people who qualify for admission to the United States because their children have become U.S. citizens, more mothers than fathers apply, perhaps because women live longer than men and there is a greater tendency on the part of widowed mothers to reunite with their children.
The complete study, which also examines the differences between men and women immigrants in such areas as age, marital status, labor force participation and destination within the United States is available free from Immigration Policy Group, Room S-5325, Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210.
The largest study ever conducted of the possible effects of radiation from video display terminals on pregnancy is under way, essentially under the sponsorship of clerical workers themselves. The 850,000-member Service Employees International Union and 9 to 5, National Assn. of Working Women, are mobilizing their members for the research, which will be directed by Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University of New York.
The lives, work patterns and reproductive histories of more than 10,000 clerical workers will be analyzed. Selikoff said this will be the first study to follow working women over several years, and that the research will also collect a broad range of new information about the reproductive health of office workers.
To date there have been more fears than facts generated about the possibility of VDT hazards to reproductive function, and more solid research is needed. “We are tired of manufacturers and employers who, on the one hand, balk at precautions because, they say, more research is needed, but, on the other hand, have not carried out this research. We are acting on our own behalf because we can’t afford to wait for anyone to act for us,” said Karen Nussbaum, executive director of 9 to 5 in the announcement of the project.
While the majority of the participants will be women, male clerical workers, about 21% of the clerical work force, will be included as well.
The study will be funded in part by a grant from the March of Dimes. Selikoff’s laboratory is supported by the American Cancer Society.
