It is an almost universal finding in scholarly research that immigrants fare worse economically than individuals born in the country. This disadvantage usually has been explained either by the operation of competitive labor markets or by employer discrimination. By analyzing national survey data collected among immigrants to Australia, this article examines immigrant occupational mobility. For immigrants, the results show economic disadvantages are caused by the act of migration itself rather than by economic experiences in their new country. Occupational status is depressed at the beginning of the immigrants’ Australian working career, and this in turn diminishes occupational status throughout the working lives of the immigrants and accounts for the economic disadvantages they face.
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