Labor-Intensive Industries
Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant Policies Have Hurt American Construction Companies—and the State’s Economy
Bill Caton, chief operating officer of the Alabama AGC—a non-residential construction association of more than 800 contractors, construction managers, and suppliers—says the state’s anti-immigration policies have created major problems for his industry—one that has a $10 billion annual economic impact on the state. “Until the state passed laws that made… Read More
First-Generation American Chef Says the Restaurant Industry Depends on Immigrants
Chef James Montejano has worked in some of the best restaurants in San Francisco and San Diego and knows that their success depends on talented trained kitchen staff performing daily miracles. Yet as the restaurant business continues to boom, chefs and restaurant owners are scrambling to find and retain the… Read More
Immigrants Mean Strong Economy and Tax Base, Says Leader of Alabama Nonprofit
Isabel Rubio, a second-generation Mexican American and executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (HICA), believes that when we give all Americans – immigrants or otherwise – equal opportunities, the entire country benefits. “Forget what side of the immigration line you’re on, this is an economic issue,” says… Read More
Immigration Policy Creates Headaches for one of Virginia’s Most Successful Grounds Management Firms
Maria Candler has a college degree in parks, recreation, and tourism—not in business. But at age 22, she took “a temp job” at a small landscaping company near her Virginia home that changed her course. “My job was to answer the phone in the morning, and if need… Read More
Why Do Migrant Workers Deserve Immigration Reform? Because They Help Uphold the American Economy
Annaliza Gourneau, a Commissioner of the Mesilla Valley Public Housing Authority and a Program Coordinator with the nonprofit HELP-New Mexico, Inc. (HELP-NM), knows firsthand what it’s like to grow up without a permanent home. “As a migrant child you experience homelessness,” she says. “You’re borderline homeless, or you are homeless. Read More
Going From Masters Degree to Meat Processing, But Still Looking Ahead to a Bright Future
Sam Komla Ewu holds a master’s degree in linguistics from one of the best universities in Togo, a small West African country, and has years of experience teaching high school English. Today, however, he makes his living carving up pig carcasses at a JBS meat-processing plant in Beardstown, Ill. —… Read More
Ohio Entrepreneur Shares his Reason for Reform
Abe Miller co-owns an apparel embroidery and design business in Cleveland, Ohio. He supports immigration reform because he feels a connection between his largely Chinese workforce and his own immigrant grandparents who came to the United States from Eastern Europe. When Abe Miller looks out over his apparel factory in… Read More
To Harvest His Crops, Georgia Farmer Needs U.S. To Improve Immigration Policy
Brent Bloser is a lifelong farmer who must hire 15 to 20 people every season to help him harvest his cotton, peanuts, cucumbers, and tomatoes. But it’s getting harder for him to employ the foreign workers he needs. Not only is the current U.S. guest worker program a bureaucratic hassle,… Read More
Houston Has This Immigrant CEO to Thank for Clean Streets
Maria Rios describes herself as “the ultimate example of the impact of immigrants in the United States.” The founder and CEO of Nation Waste, Inc., a waste removal company based in Texas, Rios emigrated from El Salvador with her family when she was 13. “When I arrived to the United… Read More
Clemson Football Star Mackensie Alexander is Son of Immigrants
On NFL Draft Day many college football players are nervously awaiting the opportunity to play for the big league. Football fans will get a sense of what’s in store for their team this year and Fantasy Football enthusiasts will start scouting for the most promising picks of the season. In… Read More
Demographic Shifts
Over the last two decades, the size of the U.S.-born population with a high school degree or less has significantly decreased. This trend is particularly evident among young workers, ages 25-44, the group typically most capable of doing physically demanding work. As this population declined, however, the number of jobs for workers with that education level held steady. Thus, real and persistent gaps in the American workforce have opened up, especially in agriculture, hospitality, and meatpacking. Foreign-born workers—a group considerably more likely than natives to lack education beyond high school—step in to fill those jobs that would otherwise remain vacant.
Sources:
1 New American Economy, “A Crucial Piece of the Puzzle: Demographic Change and Why Immigrants are Needed to Fill America’s Less-Skilled Labor Gap,” March 2014. Available online.
2 Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix 2014-2024, April 2016. Available online.
Educational Breakdown of Foreign-Born and Native-Born Populations, 2014
Occupations Dependent on Immigrants
The foreign-born make up 16.5 percent of the working-age population in the United States. In some particularly labor-intensive fields, their role is much greater. From 2008 to 2012, for instance, immigrants made up 72.9 percent of field and crop workers. In other large industries, such as construction, foreign-born workers frequently take on the most physically demanding roles, while U.S.-born workers frequently prefer positions that require more English-language skills or experience in management or customer service. In fact, of the top 10 occupations with the largest share of immigrant workers, nine of them are labor-intensive in nature or involve repetitive, manual tasks.
Sources:
3 Author’s analysis of 2015 American Community Survey data.
Top 10 Occupations with Highest Share of Immigrant Workers, 20153
Help Wanted
Across communities and industries, employers report trouble finding enough workers. Between 2002 and 2014, the number of field and crop workers in America declined by 146,000, causing major labor shortages on U.S. farms. A rapidly aging population also strains the healthcare workforce, a problem likely to worsen as more Baby Boomers retire. In many fields, immigrants can and do help businesses find the workers they need to compete and grow.
Sources:
4 “2016/2017 Talent Shortage Survey: The United States Results,” ManpowerGroup, n.d., Available online.
5 Home Care Pulse. “2015 Private Duty Benchmarking Study.” April 2015.
6 New American Economy, "International Harvest: A Case Study of How Foreign Workers Help American Farms Grow Crops – and the Economy," May 2013. Available online.
Jobs Americans Won’t Do: Evidence from the North Carolina Farming Industry, 20116
The Impact on American Workers
Although long a controversial issue among academics and policymakers, there is widespread evidence that the presence of more immigrants with relatively low levels of education does not substantially displace U.S.-born workers. Instead, a greater supply of less-skilled immigrants is linked to a decrease in offshoring7 and an expansion of firms on U.S. soil8—resulting in net benefits for U.S.-born workers across the board. The unique way in which immigrants frequently slot into the workforce—gravitating toward more manual or repetitive tasks—also means an influx of less-skilled immigrants has only a moderate impact, if any, on the wages of less-educated U.S.-born workers, particularly over the long term. Instead, they compete most directly with other immigrant workers.9
Sources:
7 Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano, Giovanni Peri, and Greg C. Wright, “Immigration, Offshoring and American Jobs," National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2010. Available online.
8 William W. Olney, “IMMIGRATION AND FIRM EXPANSION,” Journal of Regional Science 53 (2013), doi:10.1111/jors.12004.
9 Heidi Shierholz, “Immigration and Wages: Methodological Advancements Confirm Modest Gains for Native Workers,” February 4, 2010. Available online.
10 Ibid.
11 Findings come from an NAE report that examines the benefit of a one standard deviation increase in birthplace diversity among workers in the bottom half of all earners in a given workplace or metropolitan area. More details can be found in the full report, available here.
12 Based on an analysis of 1998-2008 data; William W. Olney, “IMMIGRATION AND FIRM EXPANSION,” Journal of Regional Science 53 (2013), doi:10.1111/jors.12004.
Estimated Impact of Immigration on the Wages of Less-Educated Workers, 1994-200710
Wage Impact Felt by Employees in the Same Workplace or City When the Lowest Paid Workers Become More Internationally Diverse11
Number of New Establishments that are Created when the Share of Less-Educated Immigrants in a Metropolitan Area Rises by 10 Percent12
Costs of a Farmworker Shortage
In 2014, more than 56 percent of entry-level farmworkers in the United States were immigrants. Given this, changes in immigrant labor supply tend to ripple across the U.S. agriculture economy. In the last decade, a 75 percent slowdown in the arrival of young, low-skilled immigrant farmworkers meant shortages for entry-level field and crop positions. Many farmers report that the H-2A visa program, which allows the recruitment of foreign-born farmworkers, is too cumbersome and expensive—leaving them few ways to replenish their workforce. The result is many farms cutting their production of fresh fruits and vegetables.13
Sources:
13 “NCAE Survey of 2010 H-2A Employers - Final Summary," National Council of Agricultural Employers, December 2011. Available online.
Decline of Field and Crop Workers in Key States, 2002-2014
Inadequate Visa Programs
Although immigrants already help fill gaps in the U.S. labor force, our current immigration system does not allow employers to recruit enough of the specific workers they need. Employers can sponsor low-skilled workers for an agricultural visa (the H-2A visa), or for a visa designed to meet seasonal demand at venues like hotels, amusement parks, and ski resorts (the H-2B visa). Both programs, however, are cumbersome and outdated. And many of the fields that struggle the most to find workers, including healthcare and construction, lack a dedicated visa altogether. Improvements must be made so more industries—and specific geographies—can recruit temporary foreign-born workers when no Americans are available for the job.
Sources:
14 “NCAE Survey of 2010 H-2A Employers - Final Summary, "National Council of Agricultural Employers, December 2011. Available online.
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