[Peace-discuss] Advice for anti-racism WG

[C. G. Estabrook]

[I understood AWARE's anti-racism working group to be soliciting advice 
as to what they should be concerning themselves with.  Perhaps the 
following has a suggestion. --CGE]

	U.S. wages of Arab, Muslim men fell after 9/11 - study
	Fri Aug 25, 2006 6:10 AM IST
	By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The earnings of Arab and Muslim men working in
the United States dropped about 10 percent in the years following the
9/11 attacks, according to a new study.

The drop in wages was most dramatic in areas that reported high rates
of hate crimes, according to the study due to be published in the
Journal of Human Resources.

The study measured changes in wages of first- and second-generation
immigrants, from countries with predominantly Arab or Muslim
populations from September 1997 to September 2005. It then compared
them to changes in the wages of immigrants with similar skills from
other countries.

The average wage was approximately $20 an hour ahead of the attacks in
2001 and dropped by $2 an hour after them, Robert Kaestner, co-author
of the study and a University of Illinois at Chicago professor of
economics, said on Thursday.

That drop persisted through 2004 but showed signs of abating in 2005, he 
said.

"I was surprised," Kaestner said. "We see an immediate and significant
connection between personal prejudice and economic harm."

Looking for explanations, the study found a change in the industries
where Arab and Muslim men worked, shifting away from higher-paying
industries to those that pay less.

It also found Arab and Muslim men were 20 percent less likely, after
the 9/11 attacks by Islamic extremist hijackers, to move within the
state where they lived. That could affect their ability to pursue
better paying jobs, Kaestner said.

"I think it's clear that the impact of anti-Muslim bias is more than
just a hate crime or an overt act of discrimination," said Ibrahim
Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in
Washington.

"I think the study shows that bias and prejudice can have an impact on
many levels in the society and many levels within an individual's
life," he said.

In areas where the rate of hate crimes was above average, wages
dropped approximately 12 to 13 percent after 9/11, while in areas with
lower-than-average rates, the drop was 6 to 7 percent, Kaestner said.

The study looked at 4,300 Arab and Muslim men, ages 21-54, from the 20
U.S. states where 85 percent of all Arab and Muslim Americans live. It
also used hate crime data from the FBI.

The study is scheduled to appear in the journal's spring 2007 edition.

<http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-08-25T060438Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-264823-1.xml>