Kathlyn Stone -- World News Trust
Sept 10, 2006 -- Economists following the social fallout of 9/11 have discovered that wages and weekly earnings for Arab and Muslim men living in the United States fell 10 percent following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“I was surprised," said Robert Kaestner, a study co-author and professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "We see an immediate and significant connection between personal prejudice and economic harm."
The study was based on a survey of 4,300 Arab and Muslim men, ages 21-54, from 20 states where 85 percent of all Arab and Muslim Americans live. Information was also drawn from the 2001 FBI annual hate crime report, the Current Population Survey for 1997-2005, and the 2003 U.S Census report.
The downward affect on wages corresponded with areas that also reported a high number if hate crimes. The study suggests that the 9/11 attacks also contributed to reduced intrastate travel and migration. Arab and Muslim men were more reluctant to seek new opportunities due to uncertainties of how they would be received in new communities.
The study measured changes in wages of first- and second-generation immigrants from countries with predominantly Arab or Muslim populations between September 1997 and September 2005 and compared them with changes in wages of first- and second-generation immigrants with similar skills from other countries.
The study showed that changes in industry of employment among Arab and Muslim American men accounted for some of the lower wages post-9/11, Kaestner said. Hours worked were unaffected.
"After Sept. 11, Arab and Muslim Americans worked as often as they did before (the attacks), but they worked in different industries paying less on average than the industries they used to work in," said Kaestner.
Complete findings are to be published in the Journal of Human Resources in the Spring 2007 issue. The study was supported financially by the Russell Sage Foundation.
