Unemployment patterns of local-born and immigrant youth in Hong Kong

Author(s): Eric Fong and Hang Yue Ngo

Source: Journal of Population Research , 2016, Vol. 33, No. 3 (2016), pp. 243-261
Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43920001

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 J Pop Research (2016) 33:243-261 CrossMark
DOI 10.1 007/s 1 2546-0 1 6-9 1 7 1 -2 VJJ/

Unemployment patterns of local-born and imm

youth in Hong Kong

Eric Fong1,2 • Hang Yue Ngo2

Published online: 13 June 2016

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Abstract Our study explores the unemployment patterns of local-born and immi-
grant youth in Hong Kong. Hong Kong provides a unique context to evaluate
assimilation outcomes without a race effect. Based on data from the 2011 Hong
Kong census, the findings support the classical assimilation perspective, the seg-
mented assimilation perspective, and the paradox of assimilation. The fact that
immigrant youths have higher unemployment rates than local-born youths in Hong
Kong is related to their lower levels of education and arriving in Hong Kong at older
ages. However, the difference in the unemployment rate between Hong Kong local
and immigrant youths could be even wider if the income levels of immigrant parents
were not higher. The findings suggest that the dynamics of assimilation are com-
plicated even in places outside North America.

Keywords Unemployment • Youth • Immigrant

Introduction

One of the major discussions in immigration studies currently concerns the extent to
which the principle of assimilation applies to the adaptation process of today's
immigrants (Alba and Nee 2003; Bean et al. 2009; Portes and Rumbaut 2006; Haller
et al. 2011). Specifically, researchers are interested in understanding whether the
assimilation of immigrants across generations will inevitably lead to resemblance to
the local-born population, a process that is usually associated with positive or
favourable outcomes. Findings on health outcomes and academic performance

Ēā Eric Fong
fong @chass.utoronto.ca

1 University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

2 Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

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 244 E. Fong, H. Y. Ngo

among immigrant children

level of assimilation leads
the principle of assimilatio
on the socioeconomic ach
outcomes are not inevitable
families (Portes and Rumbaut 2001; Zhou 1997). These observations have
challenged the conventional understanding of assimilation.
The theoretical discussion of assimilation underlines the growing interest in the
socioeconomic standing of immigrant children and youth (Portes and Rumbaut
2001; Kasinitz et al. 2008; Kim and Sakamoto 2010; Brown 2006). Most studies on
immigrant youth focus on school performance, earnings after they enter the job
market, or employment patterns (Kim and Sakamoto 2010; Malinowski 1922;
Bygren and Szulkin 2010; Kim and Schneider 2005). Surprisingly few studies have
explored the unemployment patterns of immigrant youth. We followed OECD
studies of "youth" (OECD/European Commission 2012) and define the group as
individuals from ages 15 to 24. Youth unemployment refers to youth who are not in
school and not working. Studies on urban poverty have documented that prolonging
the experience of unemployment, especially among youth, can foster undesirable
social behaviors and put individuals in a disadvantaged and less competitive
economic position (Homan 1961). These effects can have long-term detrimental
consequences for youth as they start to establish their career paths and develop their
human capital (Yu 2012; Abraham and Shimer 2001). In addition, unemployment
can be viewed as an indicator of the likelihood of staying at the bottom of the social
hierarchy with difficulty progressing in the labour market (Homan 1961). Thus, a
focus on immigrant youth unemployment will inform us of one of the important
outcomes of economic integration.
Our study examines youth unemployment in Hong Kong, a major Asian city,
through the lens of assimilation. The choice of Hong Kong offers three unique
contributions. First, our study is a response to repeated calls for more comparative
studies in the field of immigration studies, and for better understanding of the
increase in population flow among Asian countries (Castles and Miller 1998). The
study of immigrant youth in Hong Kong fills a major research gap by exploring
whether the concept of assimilation can be challenged in an Asian setting (Castles
and Miller 1998; Bloemraad 2013). Second, the focus on youth unemployment in
Hong Kong provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the assimilation perspective.
The overwhelming majority of the population in Hong Kong is Chinese. Hong Kong
was returned to China in 1997, with a policy of "one country, two systems." This
policy allows Hong Kong to maintain a clear border with China, and to determine its
own immigration policy. Individuals who want to migrate to Hong Kong from
China have to go through a formal application procedure. These immigrants have
the same ethnic background as people living in Hong Kong, but speak different
dialects and have to adapt from living in a socialist society to living in a market-
oriented society. This situation allows us to examine how much the principles of
assimilation hold in an Asian context, "controlling" for the complex race effect that
is well documented in the North American context (Noh et al. 1999). Third, the
topic is especially timely in Asia. Most countries have experienced drastic growth in

4£l Springer

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Unemployment patterns of local-born and immigrant youth in. . . 245

youth unemployment. In Japan, the youth unemployment rate more than dou
from 4 % in 1990 to 9 % in 2009 (Olzak 1992). In Korea, even with a vib
economy, youth unemployment grew from 7 % in 1990 to 10 % in 2009 (
2010). In Taiwan, youth unemployment reached 13 % in 2012, although the ove
unemployment rate was only 4 % (Zhao 2003; Bloemraad 2013). Similarly, y
unemployment in Hong Kong hit 15 % while the general unemployment rate w
only 3 % in 2012 (Zhao 2003). The topic clearly has urgent policy implications f
the region.
In the following sections, we first provide an overview of immigration to Hong
Kong. We then review the literature on economic integration with respect to the
unemployment of immigrant youth. We develop hypotheses to guide our subsequent
analysis, taking into consideration the Hong Kong context. Using the 2011 Hong
Kong census, we document that immigrant youth have a higher unemployment rate
than local-born youth. Our findings show that the explanation for this pattern is
complicated. We find some support for the classical assimilation perspective, some
for the segmented assimilation perspective, and some for the paradox of
assimilation. We also discuss the implications of these findings for the general
discussion of assimilation in North America.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is both an immigrant society and a post-colonial society. These two
characteristics have significant implications for understanding the context of
immigrant youth in Hong Kong. According to the 201 1 census, only 60.5 % of local
residents were born in Hong Kong. Most of those born outside Hong Kong came
from mainland China, and their total number has exceeded two million (Chan and
Buckingham 2008). As observed by Chiù et al. (2005), the influx of Chinese
immigrants when Hong Kong was a British colony peaked during four periods that
corresponded to political instability in China. The first period was between 1949 and
1953, after the civil war in China and the establishment of the People's Republic of
China. The second period was between 1962 and 1963 during the "Great Leap
Forward Movement", the great communist social experiment that ended in failure.
The third period was between 1966 and 1967 when the "Cultural Revolution"
occurred in China. The final period was between 1979 and 1980 during the "Four
Modernizations program" initiated by the Chinese government. Without doubt, the
population growth in Hong Kong since 1950 has been due in large part to
immigration from China at times when that country experienced major political
movements, social turmoil, and economic instability.
The majority of the immigrants from China who arrived in Hong Kong during
these time periods were illegal immigrants escaping political instability and social
turmoil. Throughout the decades after 1950, the British colonial government in
Hong Kong adopted a very lenient policy toward these illegal immigrants. For
example, illegal immigrants from China in the 1970s were allowed to become
permanent residents in Hong Kong as long as they reached Hong Kong. Though the
policy was later abolished, and deportation was enforced after the border was sealed

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246 E. Fong, H. Y. Ngo

in 1983, legal immigran

Pong 2013). Since the d
immigrants have been th
After the return of Hon
systems" policy, the post
post-colonial government
immigration quota of 1
established Hong Kong's "
enable the reunion of f
boundary with the mainl
entered Hong Kong throu
who came for family reun
The post-colonial Hong
policies in the past decad
pool of human capital (Ba
entrant" program, which
immigrate to Hong Kong
second policy is the "qual
purpose is to attract talen
Most of the successful app
in China and studied over
international students stu
According to this policy,
graduation to look for lo
university students from
Kong upon graduation (
admitted under these sche
old to stay in Hong Kong
various policies are grant
Kong for 7 years (Law an
from mainland China wit
Hong Kong over the past
With a large and steady v
policy encouraging fam
number of immigrant yo
22 % of youth (i.e., indivi
Macau/Taiwan, while abou
elsewhere) (Hong Kong
immigrant youth, about 1
9 % between 5 and 7 ye
Given their early age of a
(i.e., the common local d
However, about 9 % still
Chau, Fukien, and Sze Y
Statistics Department 201

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Unemployment patterns of local-born and immigrant youth in... 247

As a post-colonial society, having been under the rule of the British govern
in the 20th century, Hong Kong has a firmly established market econom
mainland Chinese economy under the communist regime operated as a so
planned economy, and only gradually shifted to a market economy in r
decades. Immigrants from China have to learn about the operations of the la
market in Hong Kong. The adaptation can sometimes create stress for
immigrants (Wong 2002). Drawing rom analysis based on 131 female immigra
the study showed immigrants' experiences of the acculturation process are lin
their stress (Mo et al. 2006). Immigrant parents can provide only limited suppo
their children as they search for employment (Chiù et al. 2005). The parents
networks and knowledge of the labour market in mainland China may
applicable to the Hong Kong market (Wong and Song 2006; Post et al. 2014). T
the socioeconomic resources of immigrant parents from mainland Chi
sometimes difficult to translate into assistance towards the employment of
children (Ou and Pong 2013).
With this understanding of the context of immigration to Hong Kong, we
address the application to Hong Kong of factors related to immigrant integrat
discussed in the literature, which has been largely based on North Ame
experiences. Our discussion focuses on three major perspectives on assimilati
in particular on the economic integration of immigrant youth.

Explaining immigrant youth unemployment in Hong Kong

The classical assimilation perspective

Since the inception of sociology in North America, assimilation has been the
concept in understanding the labour market performance of immigrants. The c
organizing formulation suggests that the labour market performance of immi
inevitably improves as they stay in the new country longer. As Park and Bu
(1969, 735) observed, immigrants "acquire the memories, sentiments, and att
of other persons or groups, and by sharing their experience and histor
incorporated with them in a common cultural life." As they are incorporated in
new society, their labour market performance improves. Part of the incorpo
reflects in their accumulation of human capital, such as education and lan
ability. Along the same lines, Rumbaut (2004) suggested that the study
adaptation of immigrants, especially children of immigrants, should differe
their age at arrival. Immigrants who arrive at different ages experience funda
tally different "pace and mode" of integration (Rumbaut 2004). Immigrants
arrive at younger ages are usually more adaptive (Kim and Sakamoto 2010
argument shares the same fundamental assumption that the labour m
performance of immigrants improves as they stay in the country longer.
To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that compare the econo
performance of immigrants arriving at different ages in Asian cities such a
Kong. Given the basic argument that age at arrival reflects the life stage and
their subsequent adaptation of the individual, we expect this argument to ap

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248 E. Fong, H. Y. Ngo

immigrants in most cou

immigrant youth is relate

Hypothesis 1 Immigran
higher likelihood of unem

Segmented assimilation:
of immigrant youth and

Studies on the integratio

nomic resources, especi
integration outcomes (C
out that the socioeconom
important role in the ind
parental socioeconomic re
labour market: The par
enhance their children's
their children their know
labour market (Portes an
job search of immigrant
their parents in the local
In Hong Kong, howeve
immigrant parents should
Leung 2012). Many immig
experience difficulty find
due to their professional
community, and partly
market (Cheung and Leun
translating educational
Hong Kong (Chiù et al.
may find their employme
(Chou and Chow 2009; Ch
Chiù et al. (2005) found th
chance compared to loca
found that the chance of
education in China is 5
immigrant parents with
immigrant children in th
who have high educationa
will be associated with th
immigrant children in th

Hypothesis 2 A higher ho
unemployment for immig

Hypothesis 3 The paren

unemployment of immigr

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Unemployment patterns of local -born and immigrant youth in... 249

Paradox of assimilation: the reverse role of socioeconomic resources

An important challenge to the assimilation perspective in recent years has been the
formulation of the paradox of assimilation, i.e., the notion that assimilation does not
necessarily bring about better labour market outcomes (Curran and Rivero-Fuentes
2003). Along the same line, we argue that improving educational levels may not
lead to favourable labour market outcomes. Specifically, we suggest that the
association between the education of immigrants and their economic outcomes
depends on the labour demand within their specific segments of the labour market.
Drawing from labour market segmentation theory, we argue that there are
differences in the requirements of different segments of the labour market. Most
jobs available to youth are associated with low levels of education and skill. Youth
with higher educational levels may have more difficulty securing jobs, as they find
themselves over-qualified in the youth labour market. The problem may be
compounded by the likelihood that immigrant youth with more education may have
higher expectations, and may be reluctant to accept low-skill jobs, which are usually
associated with lower status and lower pay (Cheung and Leung 2012). Subse-
quently, immigrant youth with lower educational levels are associated with a lower
likelihood of unemployment. Some studies also document that local-born popula-
tion h are usually less willing to take jobs with undesirable working conditions, little
chance of promotion, and low pay (Ngo 2013). Thus, regardless of their educational
level, local-born youth usually have higher expectations of their jobs than
immigrant youth. We expect local-born youth to be less willing to take the most
available jobs, which are low-skill and low-paying.
In Hong Kong, this situation is exceptionally obvious. Low-skill occupations in
various sectors, especially service sectors, such as clerical support, personal
services, retail sales, and elementary occupations, comprise about 50 % of the jobs
held by the working population in 2011 (Hong Kong Census and Statistics
Department 2013). The demand for these occupations suggests that these low-skill
jobs are more likely to be available to youth in general, including immigrant youth.
As immigrant youth with lower education are more willing to take any job available,
and low-paying jobs are more likely to be available, immigrant youth are less likely
to be unemployed. Though other mechanisms may operate that contribute to the
relationship, we still can observe the following pattern:

Hypothesis 4 A lower level of education is associated with a lower likelihood of

unemployment for immigrant youth in Hong Kong.

Data and methods

The data were drawn from the 201 1 Hong Kong Census, which was conducted from
the beginning of June to the end of August 201 1. Like censuses of many countries
ninth-tenths of households were asked to report basic demographic information
about all household members, and one-tenth of households were asked to provide
more elaborate demographic and socioeconomic information. Our analysis is based
on 5 % of the complete data set.

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250 E. Fong, H. Y. Ngo

As mentioned earlier, and

ages 15 to 24. We do not
penal institutions or hosp
residential purposes. We
background. There is only
in Hong Kong who are no
in a predominantly Chin
complicated if they wer
dummy variable, age 20-2
highest education level
indicator. Therefore, our
Our study includes only
those who are unemploye
various reasons, ranging
job, to medical reasons.)
Among various individua
and education level affect
arrivalof immigrant you
generation, and 1.75 gene
who arrived in Hong Kon
from ages 5 to 14, and th
groups are consistent w
arrived at different ages.
The Hong Kong census
educational levels that re
(1) lower secondary edu
matriculation, post-secon
degree; and (5) universi
differences compe in the
labour market. However
other factors, such as mo
unemployment. Since cen
tation of the relationship
We focus on two house
educational level. Househo
the highest educational
educational level of the y
Our multivariate analysis
their parents arrived in H
household is headed by
employed because of ge
Parents who arrived in Ho

1 The illegal migration flow in H

the city, policing of illegal imm
in the last few decades. Virtuall

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Unemployment patterns of local-born and immigrant youth in... 251

to the new environment, and may not be able to provide much guidance to t
children. Youth from single parent households may have more economic ince
to support their families.
Finally, we control for locational context, especially community con
Community is operationalized by the 18 administrative districts in Hong
which differ in socioeconomic standing. In this paper, our discussion focuses o
community contexts: the community proportion of recent immigrants, and
community proportion of youth population. Proportion of recent immigrants ref
the proportion of the total population in the district who arrived in Hong Kong w
the previous 5 years. These two factors have been well discussed in the litera
Research based mainly on North American studies has suggested that the prop
of immigrants, especially recent immigrants, is negatively related to the emplo
opportunities of immigrants (Sanders and Nee 1987; Liu and Edwards 20
addition to competition with other immigrants, the employment opportunitie
immigrant youth can be hampered by their lack of working experience as they
the labour market. The presence of a higher proportion of youth in the comm
suggests that immigrant youth are competing with a larger number of pote
employees with similar demographic background. In such a competitive envir
ment, immigrant youth are at a disadvantage compared to local-born youth, b
they have limited networks and less knowledge of the labour market.
We employ a logistic regression model for our multivariate analysis. W
logistic hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) when independent variables a
individual and community levels are included.

Results

Table 1 describes the type of unemployment of youth born in Hong Kong and
mainland China. It is clear that the unemployment rates of both local-born and
mainland immigrant youth are higher than the average unemployment rate in the
city. While the overall unemployment rate in Hong Kong was about 3.4 % in 2011,
the unemployment rates of youth included in our study were over 15 %.
We further provided information about the different reasons for unemployment,
from being temporarily out of work and looking for a job or having short-term
sickness (temporary), to waiting to take up a new job or return to an earlier job
(transitional), to suitable jobs not being available or difficulty obtaining a job
(discouraged), to other inactive reasons (inactive). Temporary unemployment was
the most common kind of unemployment for both groups of youth.

Table 1 Unemployment type

Hong Kong China
(%) by place of birth. Source :
201 1 census of Hong Kong, 5 %
Involuntary 9.3 11.3
sample
Transitional 0.8 0.4

Discouraged 0.1 0.1

Inactive 6.9 8.3

Total 17.1 20.1

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 252 E. Fong, H. Y. Ngo

Immigrant youth fro

unemployment (11 %) th
significant. Though bot
inactive and unemploye
them. They are labelled
between the two group
focuses on temporary un

Disentangling youth

Table 2 presents descript

total youth, local-born
characteristics of local-b

Table 2 Means of variables inc

Total Local born Immigrants

Individual characteristics

Gender: male 0.737 0.729 0.740

Age: 20-24 0.843 0.858 0.838

Junior secondary education and below 0.008 0.018 0.005
Senior secondary education 0.441 0.488 0.425
Matriculation, post-secondary certificate and diploma 0.231 0.206 0.239
courses taken

Sub-degree and associate degree 0.213 0.122 0.243

University degree or above 0.108 0.165 0.089
Local born 0.742
Generation 1.25 0.037 0.144
Generation 1.5 0.152 0.589
Generation 1.75 0.069 0.267
Household characteristics
Household income 3.071 2.496 3.265

Junior secondary education and below 0.371 0.454 0.343

Senior secondary education 0.216 0.134 0.244
Matriculation, post-secondary certificate and diploma 0.073 0.064 0.076
courses taken

Sub-degree and associate degree 0.063 0.052 0.066

University degree or above 0.277 0.296 0.270
Household head arrived within 5 years 0.023 0.061 0.010
Single parent household 0.183 0.212 0.174
District context

Proportion of recent immigrants 0.085 0.086 0.085

Proportion of youth 0.049 0.054 0.047

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Unemployment patterns of local-born and immigrant youth in... 253

level. A higher proportion of immigrant youth have obtained some k

certificate, diploma, sub-degree or associate degree, and a lower proportion
only junior secondary education or less. This finding may suggest that imm
families push their children to accomplish higher levels of education becaus
realize that education is a primary means of moving ahead in the new s
Households of immigrant youth have higher income than households of loc
youth. These findings reflect the highly selected socioeconomic group of imm
from China.
In Table 3, we present the estimated odds ratios of the logistic regre
results showing how individual background and household characterist
related to the likelihood of unemployment among youth in Hong Kon
report the odd ratios of the logistic HLM regression model when comm
contexts are included in the analysis. In the first model, we include o
individual characteristics, most of which are related to youth unemploy
Youth with lower levels of education (except those who have not completed
school) are less likely to be unemployed compared to those with univ
education. This finding shows the paradoxical relationship between edu
level and unemployment. Older youth are less likely to be unemployed, per
because they have been in the labour market for a longer time. The w
experience they have accumulated may help them to secure jobs. Loca
youth are less likely to be unemployed, even when individual characteristic
controlled for.
The second column reports the results including only household characteristics.
Youth from higher income households are less likely to be unemployed. The
likelihood of unemployment for youth is not statistically different for those whose
parents have a lower level of education level (except parents with junior secondary
education and below) compared to those whose parents have a university degree or
more. Immigrant youth from households whose heads are recent immigrants or
single parents are less likely to be unemployed. These families may have limited
resources, and thus push their children to take up any available job to support the
family.
The third column shows the results of the model including both individual
background and household characteristics. Almost all the included variables have
the same relationship to the likelihood of unemployment as they do when the two
sets of variables are considered separately. However, when household character-
istics are taken into consideration, there is no longer a significant difference between
local-born and mainland immigrant youth in the odds ratio of being unemployed.2
In other words, differences in the unemployment rates of local-born and mainland
youth are due largely to differences in their household characteristics. In particular,
household income is still negatively related to the likelihood of youth
unemployment.
The final column shows the logistic HLM results including individual
background, household characteristics and community context. Even when com-
munity context is controlled for, the relationships of individual and household

2 A statistical significance level greater than 0. 1 is labelled 'not significant' throughout the paper.

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 254 E. Fong, H. Y. Ngo

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 Unemployment patterns of local -born and immigrant youth in... 255

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256 E. Fong, H. Y. Ngo

variables to the likelihood o

who have lower levels of
school), are older, are from
arrived immigrant famil
unemployed. The likelihoo
significantly different fro
the two community con
unemployment are not sig

Local-born and immigr

Though the results show t

and immigrant youth in th
for local-born and imm
relationships to unemploym
and community context.
impact of various factor
immigrant youth.
As the classical assimilatio
less likely to be unemploy
at older ages. These finding
at a younger age is more i
about the operations of
assimilation perspective
likelihoodof immigrant y
Hong Kong, the educatio
immigrant youth unemp
related to the education
assimilation, lower educ
unemployment.
For local-born youth, edu
unemployment, although t
or associate degree. The res
lower likelihood of unempl
Finally, it is worth menti
has a smaller odds ratio th
findings suggest that lo
employment, controlling
community context. In oth
youth may be related to fa
networks and knowing mo
market, or even discrimin

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Unemployment patterns of local-born and immigrant youth in... 257

Table 4 Estimated odds ratios of logistic HLM regression models of unemployment for local b
immigrant youths in Hong Kong, 2011. Source : 2011 census of Hong Kong, 5 % sample

Local born Immigrants

Individual characteristics

Junior secondary education and below 0.387 (0.849) 1.215 (0.392)

Senior secondary education 0.910(0.136) 0.616 (0.128)***
Matriculation, post-secondary certificate and 0.829 (0.176) 0.578 (0.197)***
diploma courses taken
Sub-degree and associate degree 0.750 (0.167)* 0.751 (0.313)
University degree or above cc cc
Local born

Generation 1.25 1.328 (0.092)***

Generation 1.5 1.340 (0.162)**
Generation 1 .75 cc

Male 0.922 (0.093) 0.936 (0.13)

Age 20-24 0.576 (0.099)** 0.581 (0.134)***
Age 15-19 cc cc
Household characteristics

Household income 0.723 (0.064)*** 0.684 (0.154)**

Junior secondary education and below 0.856 (0.080)* 0.940(0.122)
Senior secondary education 0.965 (0.093) 0.983 (0.165)
Matriculation, post-secondary certificate and 0.945 (0.139) 0.896 (0.229)
diploma courses taken
Sub-degree and associate degree 1.293 (0.249) 0.831 (0.470)
University degree or above cc cc
Household head arrived within 5 years 0.381 (0.308)***
Single parent household 0.797 (0.083)*** 0.958 (0.1 14)
District context

Proportion of recent immigrants 0.985 (0.019) 1.026 (0.023)

Proportion of youth 0.956 (0.024)* 1.064 (0.046)
Intercept 0.091 (0.065)*** 0.112 (0.105)***
X2 test

Log likelihood -15,695.68 -7174.116

N 10,051 3383

cc Comparison catego
*** p < 0.01; ** p <

Conclusion

Our study is a first step toward understanding the unemployment patterns of local-
born and immigrant youths in Hong Kong. The topic also makes a contribution to
the discussion on assimilation in the immigration literature.

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258 E. Fong, H. Y. Ngo

Hong Kong provides a uni

the race effect. Using data
some support for the conv
higher rate of unemploym
by the individual and ho
control for individual and
becomes insignificant.
The multivariate analysis
immigrant youth are rel
socioeconomic resources of
picture of youth unemploy
perspective, age at arrival
of unemployment among im
age at arrival is related to
immigrant youth are of th
affected.
Second, as suggested by
income is negatively rela
higher income can pull mor
secure jobs. These two patt
arrival help immigrant
socioeconomic resources pl
Finally, we documented
immigrant youth and th
immigrant and local-born y
youth. Since a lower propo
(i.e., just completed junior
have higher education (spe
their overall unemploymen
with Rumbaut (2004)' s arg
health, these patterns refle
market: most jobs available
call for careful understa
achievements of immigrant
In total, our findings su
relation to unemploymen
complication of race. The f
the segmented assimilation
that immigrant youths hav
Hong Kong is related to t
Kong at older ages. Howe
Hong Kong local and immi
of immigrant parents wer
assimilation are complica
need for more studies on
(1968) stated, "Without e

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Unemployment patterns of local-born and immigrant youth in... 259

impossible to know to what extent a given factor actually has its sugg
effect" (p. 19).
These findings on youth unemployment in Hong Kong remind us to be cau
in applying factors discussed in the North American literature to other parts
world. For example, our results show that community contexts do not relate t
likelihood of unemployment among immigrant youth in Hong Kong. Th
exception is that the proportion of youth in the community is related
likelihood of employment of local-born youth. Another example relates
city's 18 administrative districts designated by the Hong Kong governm
Though these districts are distinctive in their social and economic standing,
city is relatively small and has a well-developed system of public transportat
is very common for individuals to commute to work from one community di
to another. The travelling time between two districts that are farthest apart
about an hour. The government has tried to make public transportation conv
and accessible. Thus job opportunities, particularly those in service sector, ar
bounded within community district. The findings show that we should be ca
in applying the community effect to unemployment or other demogr
patterns.
This study is not without limitations. Future research should include variables to
measure the reasons for involuntary unemployment. The information could help us
to delineate whether unemployment is due to a lack of available jobs or poor
performance in job interviews. It could help us to understand more precisely the
unemployment patterns of immigrant youth. Though our study controls for the
gender of the respondents, we did not run separate analyses for males and females.
Future studies should explore whether there are significant gender differences.
Along the same line, other factors, such as networks, should be included in the
analysis. We do not distinguish whether parents of local-born youth are immigrants.
Future studies should focus on and differentiate the effects of immigrant and local-
born parents. Finally, the results may be affected by age and cohort. Though we
controlled for age and age at arrival to minimize the effects, longitudinal data
should be collected to address these issues properly.
Despite these limitations, our study offers important insights into unemployment
patterns among immigrant youth in Asia. It is generally agreed that youth
unemployment has important consequences for the individuals who are unem-
ployed, and most countries experience higher rates of unemployment among youth.
Our findings shed light on the issue in an Asian context.

Acknowledgments The Census and Statistics Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region provided the 2011 census data set for our analysis.

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