Education, Occupational Prestige, and Income of Asian Americans

This article examines data from the 1980 census on the education, occupations, and personal income of various groups of Asian Americans in light of general hypotheses derived from assimilation, human capital, and structural theories. The results show that most Asian Americans are better educated than are whites, blacks, and Hispanics. But after other variables are introduced, only Japanese Americans approach income equity with whites. The Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Asian Indians have variable income losses, partly because of the large number of recent immigrants. Although the occupational prestige scores of Asian American men seem to be commensurate with their high levels of education, their incomes do not. Generally, the findings seem to support structural theories, in that the higher educational levels of Asian immigrants-and even of those who were born here-do not necessarily lead to income equity with whites.