GENDER, ETHNICITY, AND IMMIGRATION

Abstract

This article examines whether recent immigrant women in the Israeli labor market are at a “double disadvantage”—first as immigrants and second as women—and whether and to what extent such disadvantages differ across ethnic and geocultural groups. Data were obtained from the last available population census (1983). The analysis focuses on gender differences in employment opportunities among men and women who immigrated to Israel between 1979 and 1983. Data reveal that the double disadvantage of immigrant women is evident with regard to both labor force participation and occupational attainment. Immigrant women are less likely than immigrant men to join the Israeli labor market, and they face much greater occupational loss. Data also reveal an interaction effect between gender and ethnicity. Immigrant women from the less developed countries in Asia and Africa constitute the most disadvantaged group. This group of women appears to be at a “triple disadvantage.”