Colorism Against Legal Immigrants to the United States

Data from the 2003 wave of the New Immigrant Survey established that immigrants to the United States with darker skin color experienced a substantial pay penalty that is not explained by extensive individual and job characteristics. These same immigrants were reinterviewed approximately 4 years later. With additional time to assimilate to the U.S. labor market, the disadvantage of darker skin color may have declined or even disappeared. The current analysis shows that the penalty for darker color instead increased over this period from a 16% lightest-to-darkest penalty to a 25% disparity.