Educational and Labor Market Outcomes of Ghanaian, Liberian, Nigerian, and Sierra Leonean Americans, 2010–2017

Ernesto Amaral, Texas A&M University
Arthur Sakamoto , Texas A&M University
Courtney Nelson, Sweet Briar College
Sharron X. Wang, Texas A&M University

We investigate socioeconomic outcomes among second-generation African Americans focusing on those from English-speaking countries in West Africa: Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone (GLNS). We use the 2010–2017 Current Population Surveys to impute ethnicity based on country of parental birth. Generalized ordered logit models reveal that GLNS men are more likely to have a bachelor’s degree than third-plus-generation whites, third-plus-generation blacks, second-generation whites, other-second-generation blacks, but not second-generation Asians. Among women, GLNS are more likely to have a bachelor’s degree than all groups. OLS estimates of wages show that GLNS men are not disadvantaged relative to third-plus-generation whites in contrast to the disadvantage of 7 percent for other-second-generation blacks and 18 percent for third-plus-generation blacks. Among women, neither GLNS nor other-second-generation blacks are disadvantaged relative to third-plus-generation whites in contrast to the disadvantage of 8 percent for third-plus-generation blacks. These findings highlight significance of ethnic diversity and gender among African Americans.

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 Presented in Session 7. Migration & Urbanization