Immigration, Gender, and Earnings in Israel

Abstract

This study describes and accounts for gender differences in earnings among the foreign-born in Israel and how these differences vary by origin countries. It expands on an earlier study that examined the effect of being foreign-born and female on employment status. I address three major questions: Do earnings corroborate the “double disadvantage” of immigrant women relative to both native-born women and native and foreign-born men? How do gender differences in earnings evolve with the prolongation of tenure in the new country? Does the combined effect of nativity status and gender act similarly among all foreign-born groups? Results of OLS regressions from the 1995 population census indicates that, everything else being equal, immigrants, including immigrant women, out-earn native-born men. The effect of tenure, by single year, shows that immigrant men and immigrant women follow very similar trajectories but the latter achieve similarity to native-born men much sooner. A detailed analysis reveals important stratification by country of birth. All the immigrant women who out-earned native men and native women originated in America or Europe. By contrast, all immigrant women who are at a disadvantage relative to native-born men are from Asia or Africa. The most common pattern, in which immigrant women earn as much as native-born men do but out-earn native-born women, characterizes immigrants from both Asia–Africa and Europe–America. The results are discussed in reference to three working hypotheses—“absorption climate,” “immigration motivation,” and “socio-cultural norms”—and in close connection with observations from the investigation on employment status.