Borders within Borders: The Impact of Occupational Licensing on Immigrant Incorporation

Beth Redbird*, Angel Alfonso Escamilla-García

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Over the past four decades, occupational regulation, particularly licensing, which creates a legal right to practice, has engulfed the American occupational structure. Occupational licensure research typically offers theoretical arguments suggesting that licensing limits individuals’ entry into an occupation. For migrants arriving with little financial capital, licensing requirements can act as substantial barriers to occupational entry. On the other hand, licensing delineates, codifies, and publicizes uniform standards for occupational entry, which may have the effect of enhancing accessibility for immigrants. Using a unique longitudinal data set of occupational licensing enactments between 1994 and 2012, combined with nationally representative data from the Current Population Survey, the authors show that licensing creates institutional mechanism that can ease access into occupations for immigrants, particularly for vulnerable immigrant labor groups, particularly for (1) those arriving as adults after the acquisition of education credentials in their countries of origin and (2) those who recently entered the country and may lack the occupational social networks necessary to find and obtain jobs and the cultural capital to follow typical informal paths to entry.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)22-45
Number of pages24
JournalSociology of Race and Ethnicity
Volume6
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2020

Funding

We are grateful for the invaluable assistance of Drs. David Grusky, Koji Chavez, Tomás Jiménez, Matthew Snipp, Chris Tilly, and Kim Weeden. This project has been funded, either wholly or in part, with funds from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (contract DOLJ111A2173); from the National Science Foundation (grant 1303612); and from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy.

Keywords

  • capital
  • immigrants
  • occupations
  • social closure
  • work

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Anthropology
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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