Race and immigration

From yesterday’s New York Times: Study of Immigrants Links Lighter Skin and Higher Income

From the article:

The scholar, Joni Hersch, a professor of law and economics at Vanderbilt University, looked at a government survey of 2,084 legal immigrants to the United States from around the world and found that those with the lightest skin earned an average of 8 percent to 15 percent more than similar immigrants with much darker skin.

“On average,” Dr. Hersch said, “being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education.“

The folks who wrote The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans report a similar observationamong black people in the U. S.