Using data from the 1-in-100 sample of 1980 U.S. Census of Population for California and New York, this study analyzes the self-selection-corrected earnings of immigrants of three major ancestral groups- Europeans, Asians, and Hispanics-vis-a-vis their native-born counterparts in the U.S. The earnings of immigrants are overestimated if not properly corrected for their self-selectivity. All three major groups of immigrants have lower average earnings than those of their U.S. born counterparts due to immigrants’ lower returns to human capital than to lower levels of human capital. After correcting for selectivity bias, Asian immigrants have a slight advantage over European immigrants in both earnings characteristics and returns to these characteristics. Both the absolute and relative earnings of Hispanic immigrants are lower than those of Asian and European immigrants, and this differential is largely due to Hispanics’ smaller amount of human capital.