States in recent years (and which have thus suffered from the greatest brain drain) are Taiwan, India, and the Philippines. No one speaks of a "Chinese," "Indian" or "Filipino" immigration problem. They are seldom mentioned in policy debates. The reason is that these Asian professionals are dispersed throughout the country, employed by a number of firms and institutions, and pur- suing a style of adaptation quite different from the conventional assimilation sequence. Foreign physicians are among the most numerous professional workers in the United States. A recent large study of for- eign doctors in US hospitals found no evi- dence of discrimination against them in pay or working conditions relative to US medical graduates in similar positions. The study found, however, that foreign doctors were disproportionately concentrated in the less prestigious hospitals, predominantly those without university affiliation. These re- sults fit well the labor-supplement function, where immigrants are hired to resolve a manpower shortage by taking the less de- sirable positions in a particular profession or craft. Secondary Sector Immigration The secondary labor market corresponds to employment in small and medium-sized competitive firms which lack internal pro- motion ladders and for which cheap labor is a decisive element of survival. Discipline in these firms is imposed directly and it is often harsh. The pressures of competition lead to an unmitigated downward pressure on wages and a continuous search for cheaper and more docile sources of labor. Native workers frequently refuse to take these jobs; when they do, they change from one to another since the absence of promo- tion ladders offers no incentive to stay with a particular employer. The "bad jobs" of the secondary sector are those in which American-born minor- ities, such as blacks and Chicanos, tend to concentrate. A large proportion of contem- porary immigration is also directed to this sector. In contrast with primary immigra- tion, that going into the secondary labor market has the following characteristics: Its juridical status is often tenuous, ranging from illegal to temporary. Workers are not primarily hired according to their skills, but according to their ethnicity. Their primary advantage to employers is the vulnerability attached to their juridical position. Immi- grants tend to be hired for transient and short-term jobs which are not part of a pro- motion ladder. Opportunities for upward mobility are severely restricted. The func- tion of secondary sector immigration is not limited to supplementing the domestic la- bor force but involves disciplining it. Immi- grant workers are hired even when a domestic labor supply exists and against Immigration inspector escorting undocumented aliens in Phoenix, 1981. Immigration inspector escorting undocumented aliens in Phoenix, 1981. the employment conditions demanded by the latter. The consistent effect of second- ary labor immigration is thus to lower the prevailing wage. Secondary sector immi- gration tends to cluster in limited residential areas, ghettos or barrios, characterized by poor housing and overcrowding. Secondary sector immigration differs from the normative assimilation sequence because of the illegal status of most immi- grants in it. This has two consequences: First, as noted above, many return to their native country. Second, those who stay find their opportunities for acculturation and up- ward economic mobility restricted by their illegal status. Their children face much greater difficulties in moving along the pat- terned steps of the assimilation ladder and thus tend to remain confined to the same jobs and residential areas as their parents. Current Mexican immigration offers one of the most typical examples of secondary labor flows. The bulk of this immigration is undocumented although a substantial pro- portion has also managed to legalize its situation. The majority of Mexican immi- grants are small farmers, urban unskilled and semi-skilled workers, plus some ar- tisans and white-collar employees. In a longitudinal study of Mexican immi- gration, I interviewed 822 legal male immi- grants along the Texas border during 1972-73. Interviews took place at the point of legal entry in the United States. The same immigrants were reinterviewed three and six years later. A total of 439 cases were found and reinterviewed in 1976 and 455 in 1979. A series of statistical checks on the original sample indicated that it was repre- sentative of the population of male Mexican immigrants arriving during fiscal 1973. Analyses of the two follow-up subsamples indicated that they were unbiased with re- spect to the original one. Approximately 70 percent of the original sample was estimated to have resided for extensive periods in the United States prior to legal entry. These immigrants were able to obtain residents' visas largely through marriage to a US citizen or permanent resi- dent. The remainder of the sample also came, almost exclusively, as immediate rel- atives of US citizens and permanent resi- dents. Results from this sample illustrate some of the characteristics of secondary sector immigration. At the moment of arrival in the US most immigrants already had a job. These jobs paid a median of $408 per month or less than half the median earnings of the US adult male labor force in 1973. In subse- quent years, there was a gradual narrowing of the gap, though in 1979 it was still signfi- cant. Mexican immigrant monthly earnings then stood at $818 while the corresponding national figure was $1,205. Adjusting for inflation, the economic gain made by this sample was still less impressive: Between 1973 and 1979, the real increase in earn- ings was only $100, or less than one-fourth the original monthly earnings. More important, however, is the correla- tion of earnings with variables which should, in theory, increase them. These var- iables include education at arrival, knowl- edge of English, and past occupational training. The secondary labor market is characterized by employment in dead-end jobs for which many school-acquired skills Continued on page 49 CAIPBBEAN IrEVIE/25