Immigration in Spain and United States: a question of gender ( 62,08 KB )

 

Differences between male and female immigration

  In May 1903 a boatload of immigrants reached the port of New York. Still suffering from the terrible conditions of the trans-Atlantic voyage, one of the immigrants was a Sicilian boy of six with the surname Capra. In only 30 years Frank Capra was to become the most successful film director of his time, the conscience of America in the harsh moments of the Great Depression and a firm believer in the ability of ordinary people to make things better.

  Immigration can be a blessing or a problem. More immigrants means more people working and probably increased economic growth. The question is whether this growth also carries with it an increase in productivity and per capita income. A good academic education and being able to complement the local labour force, as well as the initiative already shown by the effort in leaving behind one’s native country, all help to ensure the second aspect.

  The qualifications of foreign workers in Spain is relatively good although there is indeed a downward trend. One indicator of the level of qualification is the years of schooling weighted in terms of educational level reached. In 2003, in the United States, a country where immigration is of special importance, the period of schooling of foreign workers was nearly 14 years, well below the 16 and a half years for the rest of the population. The situation in Spain in June 2006 was surprising with a foreign worker population showing 14 years of schooling, only 9 months less than that of Spaniards. We do not take into account here the quality of schooling received nor its suitability for the demands of the labour market, although it is necessary to add that half of the immigrants in Spain come from Latin America so that language is not a problem.

  The downside is that, while in the case of the United States there was stability between 1998 and 2003, the situation in Spain seems to have deteriorated since the beginning of 2005, given that the difference in schooling between foreigners and Spaniards has gone up by three months. The main cause of this worsening lies in the change of origin of immigration, with a decrease in the percentage of Europeans, maintenance of the proportion of Latin Americans and an increase in those coming from other parts of the world.

  Even with good academic credentials, many foreigners are underemployed because they have not mastered Spanish or because of the preferences of business executives in favour of national workers. It is not true, however, the idea that immigrants carry out work Spaniards do not want to do. Spaniards may reject jobs done by immigrants at the wages they obtain. But, if there were no foreign workers, a low job offer would increase the wages being offered in vacant jobs to the point where there were people ready to fill them. Therefore, there is the possibility that some sectors may exist that are hurt by the presence of foreign workers.

  The key factor for lowering these costs is that recent arrivals be complementary to local workers. It would be difficult for the average American to emulate Frank Capra. Knowing whether nationals or immigrants are complementary is difficult to measure but a comparison of their respective job profiles, in what sectors one or the other is employed, may give us a clue. If we look at the percentage each sector represents out of total employment for each of the two groups, national or foreign, we can calculate the difference for each sector. If we add up the absolute values of these differences we obtain an indicator that, in the absence of other measurements, gives us a broad idea of the degree to which both groups are complementary. In the American case, if we take six macro-sectors of employment, the degree to which they are complementary thus measured grew by 12% between 1998 and 2003. For Spain, taking 45 sectors between the beginning of 2005 and June 2006, the difference held stable with a slight downward trend, which would appear to give some advantage to the United States.

  It is interesting to examine the differences by sex. In the American figures, the degree to which a worker is complementary in employment in the case of male foreigners and US workers goes up by 26.1% in the case of women who make up 48.5% of immigrants. The story does not end here given that, while in academic qualifications women immigrants were merely one and a half months below men in 1998, in 2003 they had gone just a little higher than men. Thus, in the absence of any disadvantage in qualifications and with a higher degree of being complementary, women seem to be the better bet for growth in the American case.

  In the case of Spain, there has not been any exhaustive study of the degree to which females are complementary but the differential factor is that female immigrants work proportionally more than Spanish women, are better trained than their male counterparts and furthermore this characteristic is increasing. A growing 43.5% of all immigrants working are women as against a figure of only 40.0% that women represent of all Spanish workers. Their academic qualifications are close to one year higher than those of males.

  It may be that, for many recently arrived Black Africans, Spain may not be the dreamed-about Shangri-La in the film by the famous director Capra but the female group, although less noted, is growing, is better trained and probably with a higher degree of being complementary to female Spanish workers. Thus, according to official figures, many immigrants, better qualified and with more potential than often supposed, may already be contributing to economic growth, silently and without excessive cost, while overcoming difficulties just as did the popular heroes of Frank Capra’s films.

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