Darker skin colour may negatively influence likelihood of employment for male immigrants, especially Asian men, in the US, a new study has found.
University of Kansas (KU) researchers found that among men, darker skin colour negatively influenced their likelihood of employment, even after accounting for the effects of race and other demographic and education related variables.
The negative effect of darker skin colour was particularly salient for Asian male immigrants, researchers said.
In contrast, for female immigrants, the lightness or darkness of their skin did not matter in terms of securing employment after controlling for the effect of race.
While black and Asian women were disadvantaged compared to white female immigrants, Latin American women were not. Within the same racial group, darker skin colour did not affect the chance of employment negatively.
"Our findings suggest that the colour lines are gendered, and that race alone is no longer enough to understand the current stratification system," said Andrea Gomez Cervantes, a doctoral candidate in sociology.
"It is probable that meanings of femininity and masculinity are intertwined with those of skin colour.
"The masculinity and threatening images attached to darker skin may have a negative impact for men, while those negative images are not applied to women, leading to different outcomes for men and women of colour," Gomez Cervantes said.
The researchers relied on data from the 2003 adult sample of the US New Immigrant Survey to look at interactions of skin colour and race as well as skin colour and gender on legal immigrants' employment probabilities.
Gomez Cervantes said this research is important because the racial composition of the American population is increasingly expanding beyond black and white.
Today, immigrants from Asia and Latin America account for the majority of new immigrants to the US and people of Asian and Latin American descent are the fastest growing populations in the US.
Census experts have predicted that by 2050, whites will compose 46.6 per cent of the American population while the racial minority population will more than double from what it is presently.
"The black/white racial divide may no longer fully predict the experiences and opportunities of those who do not neatly fit in the black/white dichotomy," Gomez Cervantes said.
"The labour market experience of dark-skinned Latin American and Asian men is much less favourable than that of lighter skinned men from the same racial groups.
"It is also important to look at how gender interacts with skin colour, as the interaction of gender and skin colour may significantly shape people's life chances and opportunities," Gomez Cervantes said.
The study will be presented at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago.
