The major purpose of this research is to study the socioeconomic assimilation and labor market performance of Asian Indians living in the United States. In the course of pursuing this objective, the study examines the occupational status and earnings attainment patterns of native- and foreign-born Asian Indian men and women aged 16-64 years, using data drawn from the 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1980 U.S. census. Based on structural and ethnic stratification perspectives, this study develops and tests the hypotheses that ascriptive factors, such as ethnicity, gender, and nativity, have independent effects on occupational status and earnings attainment, net of individual human capital and structural labor market characteristics, and that the process of socioeconomic attainment differs for Asian Indians and non-Hispanic whites across gender and nativity groups.
The results of the multivariate analyses reveal that Asian Indians have gained parity with the non-Hispanic white majority in terms of occupational status attainment and allocation processes. In fact, Asian Indians appear to outperform their "comparable" white counterparts when it comes to converting their overall resources into occupational achievement. However, Asian Indians, with the exception of native-born women, have not reached earnings parity with whites. They are at a substantial earnings disadvantage relative to their white counterparts of equivalent human capital and structural background. Furthermore, the comparatively disadvantaged earnings position of Asian Indians, which suggests possible labor market discrimination against them, is not uniform across the various occupational/class categories. The extent of economic discrimination directed against Asian Indians appears to be more pronounced in the lower class strata than in the professional and managerial class. It is noted that if Asian Indians, especially men, given their educational and occupational achievements, experienced the same process of stratification as majority whites, their earnings would be expected to be substantially higher than those reported for whites.