Wealth Inequality among New Immigrants

Much of the research on immigrants’ economic well-being demonstrates a greater concentration of immigrants in or near poverty. A relatively new aspect of scholarly interest in immigrant economic well-being is wealth or net worth. We use assimilation theory and data from the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) to explore wealth inequality among immigrants and highlight how racial/ethnic realities in the United States provide differential opportunities and constraints for immigrants of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, net of factors such as pre-immigration characteristics and length of U.S. stay. We apply quantile regression to analyze immigrants’ net worth and logistic regression to explore immigrants’ investments, including homeownership and investment in stocks and bonds. Results provide evidence of a white/nonwhite wealth divide among immigrants. This study improves our understanding of how long-lasting racial/ethnic inequalities in the United States influence diverse immigrants’ integration patterns.