Social Context, Household Composition and Employment among Migrant and Nonmigrant Dominican Women

Abstract

The effects of household composition on the employment of female immigrants from the Dominican Republic residing in New York City and women residing in the Dominican Republic are examined. The analysis indicates that context is more important than group culture in explaining the labor force participation of Dominican women. Dominican women residing in New York with children and no spouse present are less likely to be employed than are either women who have spouses or who have neither spouses nor children – the same pattern exists for women of another important Hispanic immigrant group in New York: Colombians. The reverse pattern holds in the Dominican Republic, where women living in households with spouse present are least likely to be employed. The presence of adult men other than the spouse in the household has effects consistent with those for spouse in both contexts – increasing women's odds of being employed in New York but decreasing them in the Dominican Republic. Structural factors in the Dominican Republic and New York City contexts that might account for the differing dynamics are discussed.