Full Citation
Title: The Economic Integration of Immigrants in the United States: Long- and Short-Term Perspectives
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2011
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Abstract: Immigrants make up a large and growing share of the US labor force. The number of immigrants in the US workforce has increased steadily since the 1970s and is now approaching rates last experienced at the peak of the previous great wave of immigration at the turn of the 20th century. As the baby boom generation moves gradually toward retirement, immigrants and their children will assume a critical role in sustaining US output and productivity against the backdrop of an increasingly competitive global economy.The United States has historically offered unparalleled economic opportunity to successive generations of immigrants and their children and, in the absence of explicit policies aimed at integrating newcomers, the workplace has arguably been one o the country's most powerful immigrant-integrating institutions. In contrast to other major immigrant receiving countries, immigrants in the United States tend to be strongly attached to the labor force and typically experience low unemployment. But they are also more likely to work low-wage and low status occupations. Even among highly skilled immigrants, skill underutilization is widespread.The 2007-09 global economic crisis accentuated immigrants' vulnerability in the labor market and in its wake, it is not clear if past trends in immigrants' economic integration will continue. The lasting impact of job loss and poverty in the context of a weak, protracted recovery could realign the economic and social forces that have historically propelled immigrants' upward socioeconomic mobility. Over the next decade the US economy is expected to grow more slowly than in the past. Inevitably, slower growth will translate into fewer opportunities for all workers and as is frequently the case, immigrants may prove the most vulnerable.
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Authors: Terrazas, Aaron
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Institution: Migration Policy Institute
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Publisher Location: Washington, D.C.
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration
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