The Effect of Immigrant Settlement among Asian Americans on Occupational Disparities in Management

Hideki Morooka, Fayetteville State University

It is well-established that Asian Americans are fairly represented in professional occupations due to their high educational attainment; however, the representation of Asian Americans in influential high-ranking corporate executive roles is still particularly small. Despite the dramatic increase of Asian Americans as a percentage of the population in recent decades, very few studies have been conducted on investigating an association between immigrant settlement and occupational disparities in managerial occupations of Asian Americans by ethnicities The specific aims for this research are: (1) to examine what characteristics influence Asian Americans embarking on managerial occupations as compared to other occupations by nativity and length of residence in the United States; (2) to compare trends of the native-born Asian Americans with those of native-born non-Hispanic whites to examine whether an occupational disparity has been approaching convergence; and (3) to observe gender differentials.