Shocker: Lighter skinned immigrants make more money
A Syrian immigrant once told me: “If you’re white, you’re alright, if you’re brown (meaning light brown) stick around, but if you’re black stay back!”
Light-skinned immigrants in the United States make more money on average than those with darker complexions, and the chief reason appears to be discrimination, a researcher says.
Joni Hersch, a law and economics professor at Vanderbilt University, looked at a government survey of 2,084 legal immigrants to the United States from around the world and found that those with the lightest skin earned an average of 8 percent to 15 percent more than similar immigrants with much darker skin.
“On average, being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education,” Hersch said.
The study also found that taller immigrants earn more than shorter ones, with an extra inch of height associated with a 1 percent increase in income.
Other researchers said the findings are consistent with other studies on color and point to a skin-tone prejudice that goes beyond race.
Hersch took into consideration other factors that could affect wages, such as English-language proficiency, education, occupation, race or country of origin, and found that skin tone still seemed to make a difference in earnings.
That means that if two similar immigrants from Bangladesh, for example, came to the United States at the same time, with the same occupation and ability to speak English, the lighter-skinned immigrant would make more money on average.
“I thought that once we controlled for race and nationality, I expected the difference to go away, but even with people from the same country, the same race
Filed under: Race
“On average, being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education” …”Economics professor Shelley White-Means of the University of Tennessee at Memphis said the study adds to the growing body of evidence that there is a
I read another research article (Du Bois Journal), describing racisme within African American communities, particularly on campus, where people are discriminated after their skin ton.
The education bagground plays a major rol here, and the education system also failed after Brown v. Board of Education, otherwise how can you explain the African scienties and others in the US, where their contributions are praised and appreciated around the world? I read somewhere, that there are more Africans who hold PhDs than African American, but can’t remember the sources, possibly from New African:
http://www.africasia.co.uk/newafrican/
It’s really about, those who can afford, they send their children to best schools.
asssalamu alikeum
I don’t mean to be rude, but honestly, is it really shocking?
I dont think it is. We’ve seen throughout history for centuries that lighter skinned people from whatever quarters/region of the world are better treated then those with darker skin. You can two people from the same family (forget country!), one light skinned and other dark and in most cases the lighter one gets treated better. This is just that attutide manifested into a larger scale.
Don’t get me wrong, its a sick mentality and something which needs to be iradicated but its no revelation.
muslim_gal:
I was being sarcastic
This is well known in the black community in the US at least. The ones in charge want workers to most closely resemble themselves. This is tribal thinking basically, but exists in many African countries as well, a leftover from Colonial days. A sad commentary on our so called civilized 21st century world.
Ya Haqq!
Skin color has a stubborn and unfortunate legacy. All you have to do is take a stop in the Indian Sub-continent. Darker girls find it much harder to get married, even when they are smarter, more attractive, and more religious that their fairer-skinned counterparts. Darker guys may also be subjugated to mocking and name-calling; though they will usually have lesser issues than females.
As I said, it is unfortunate, but somehow this bias is so inculcated in mankind, that I am not quite sure how it will ever be removed?
Musings of a Muslim Mind
My aunts were telling me that back home (east africa) if a girl was very light skinned and/or mixed, she was like a “diamond”.
And it’s simply perfect if she marries a white guy.
I don’t even want to get into the stories of dark skinned people, subhanAllah. But one fact, when the troops went into Somalia in the 90s, a lot of local somalis actually rejected their help because they were dark and had coarser hair! La huwla wa la quwwata ila billah, talk about arrogance.
I was wondering if you have worked in the Gulf? Fair skinned people get paid the highest; even more than the locals. There are ranks:
White Western people (males preferred)
Locals
Arabs of other nationalities
Asians
AE Asians
Africans
Suroor, it’s the passport not the complexion that determines the pay scale in the Gulf. I know African Americans that get paid the same as their white compatriots. I have a Somali neighbor that worked here under one pay scale, left and came back on a Canadian passport and has the same job but on western salary.
I agree w/ you muslim girl, This sick behavior isn’t new it’s been around for decades. Maybe, it ’s a shock to the younger generation, because some them are not taught about culture or racism white supremacy. They are taught assimilation meaning to embrace other people culture looks ETC. and being color blind. IMO some are not taught to embrace there own culture. They are taught self hatred. Yes we live in a world that evolves around technology, but when it comes to racsim white supremacy
we sometimes act as though it doesn’t exist. African American especially older ones know it exist. Racist have taught other cultures the same method of racism white supremacy. Racist taught other cultures how to disgrimnate against us darker people including there own darker skin people.
people.