Labor Market Behavior of Disadvantaged Migrants: a Case Study of Samoans in the San Francisco Bay Area (California).

Abstract

Two models of labor market behavior--human capital theory and dual-market theory--are examined with reference to the labor market behavior of Samoans in the San Francisco Bay Area. Data for this study were collected by participant observation and formal survey of Samoan communities in San Francisco and San Jose during 1983. Analysis focuses on a group of 103 employed and unemployed adults and examines: labor market positions, labor market mobilities, and wages. Additional analyses include: the labor market behavior of special subsamples of these adults--young adults (18-29 years of age) and recent migrants (arrivals in the Bay Area since 1975)-- and the income distributions of families in the survey. Supplementary data have been obtained from file extracts of the 1980 Census Public Use Microdata for Samoans and Vietnamese in the Bay Area. Most employed Samoans work in clerical and service occupations and in the service industry. Regressions of wage on training and schooling account for up to 33% of the variation in wage dispersion; regressions that include the effects of opportunity structure account for up to 71% of this variation. Migration and layoff are the primary reasons for unemployment of Samoans in the Bay Area. A model is presented which accounts for the labor market behavior of Samoans in the Bay Area. Maintenance of social relations in the migrant community depends on a steady source of income. Lacking advantages in technical and linguistic competence, Samoans generally work in lower-level, entry-level positions: clerical occupations and service occupations. These jobs offer little on-the-job training which could allow for mobility within a firm; the low wages inhibit self-financing of formal education. Thus, Samoan migrants are confronted with a dilemma in which they seek to maximize their incomes but cannot obtain training which is valued in the Bay Area labor market. The thesis concludes with some questions for further research on labor market behavior of migrants, which need to be answered before satisfactory employment and job-training policies can be recommended.