Content area
Compared to the problem of unemployment, inadequate employment has received much less attention from both scholars and policymakers (Maynard & Feldman, 2011). Underemployment is an inferior, lesser or lower-quality type of employment which is defined relative to the employment experiences of others with the same education or work history, or relative to the person’s own past education or work history (Feldman, 1996). The problem of underemployment is pervasive among immigrants who seek successful settlement in the destination country, which partly depends on how they integrate into the labor market (Pasura, 2010). However, several factors pose a challenge to their successful workforce integration, including a decline in human capital among immigrants relative to natives as well as a labor market in which job quality is increasingly split into high- and low-skilled work (Slack & Jensen, 2011). Immigrants’ success often depends on strong language and literacy skills in addition to the presence of social networks in the destination country that can help migrants in the post-migration phase, particularly as it relates to entering the workforce (Bloch, 2006). African migrants, in particular, are the least-studied group, yet they are among the fastest growing segment in the United States (Capps, McCabe, & Fix, 2012).
Specifically, the inflow of new legal permanent residents from Zimbabwe to the United States has increased steadily since 1999. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between human capital, social capital and the employment outcomes of Zimbabwean immigrants working in the United States. In trying to understand how immigrants integrate into the United States labor market, this study investigates whether immigrants perceive themselves as underemployed. This study uses a quantitative, nonexperimental research design. This was accomplished by exploring the influence of Zimbabwean immigrants’ human and social capital in relation to their employment.
Findings from this study show that immigrants from Zimbabwe living and working in the United States have attained, on average, 16.9 years of education; nine years of career experience; a median household income of $75,000; work about 41 hours a week; and are proficient in English. Additionally, they belong to about five organizations and have about 11 members of their family in the United States. A significant model was created that provides evidence that 16.4% of the variance in underemployment can be explained by human capital, social capital and demographic variables. Overall, the results show that immigrants from Zimbabwe do not perceive they are underemployed.
African immigrants in general and Zimbabweans in particular tend to differ from other immigrant groups that have traditionally come to the US in human capital, social capital and demographics. This creates a need for researchers to concentrate on understanding the variations in this group of recent immigrants in order to implement policy that will effectively target them. Additionally, this study shows that obtaining higher education in the US reduces the likelihood of perceived underemployed. Therefore, this study can serve as a foundation in crafting immigration policy that considers national origin, gender and social networks as important factors in the successful integration of immigrants to the United States.