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Title: Immigrant Workers: Vital to the U.S. COVID-19 Response, Disproportionately Vulnerable
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2020
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Abstract: With the COVID-19 virus spreading rapidly within the United States, workers in several key industries are at the frontlines of keeping U.S. residents healthy, safe, and fed.1 This includes not only doctors and nurses, but also the custodians who are cleaning hospital rooms, checkout clerks at grocery stores and pharmacies, scientists racing to develop treatments and a vaccine, and the people who grow, harvest, and transport food across the country. Immigrant workers are over-represented in a number of these occupations that are vital in the fight against the coronavirus. While the foreign born represented 17 percent of the 156 million civilians working in 2018, they accounted for larger shares in some frontline occupations: 29 percent of physicians, 38 percent of home health aides, and 23 percent of retail-store pharmacists, for example. Immigrant workers are also over-represented in some of the non-frontline industries that are being devastated as more people follow social distancing guidelines and more states and cities issue shelter-in-place orders. Travel restrictions, orders limiting the operation or mandating the shutdown of restaurants and bars, and the closure of businesses deemed nonessential have already led to mass layoffs. In just the first week of serious social distancing measures across the country, some 3.3 million new unemployment claims were filed—a rate that while unprecedented in U.S. history is likely only the tip of the iceberg.2 Immigrant workers are over-represented in many of the hardest-hit industries: hotels and restaurants, cleaning services for now-shuttered office buildings, and personal services such as in-home child care and hair and nail salons. The economic pain brought by this sudden and dramatic economic contraction will bring hardship to millions of Americans in the coming weeks and months. For many immigrant workers, the hardship will be exacerbated by limited access to safety-net systems and to federal relief, both for those who are legally present and those who are unauthorized. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates 6 million foreign-born workers are employed in vital, frontline industries; another 6 million work in some of the industries hardest hit by the fight against COVID-19.3 The first section of this fact sheet reviews the roles immigrant workers serve in industries at the frontlines of the COVID-19 response. The second section discusses the jobs immigrant workers fill within industries that are laying off large numbers of workers
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Authors: Gelatt, Julia
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration
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