Giving Compass' Take:
- This report from Migration Policy Institute helps define how the future of work include immigrant workers and examines their impact on economic development.
- How can this research help inform donors about immigrant workers and their needs?
- Read more about how immigrant workers play key roles in local economies.
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Immigrant-origin workers—that is, immigrants and their U.S.-born children—have been the main drivers of U.S. workforce growth in recent years. They were responsible for 83 percent of labor force growth between 2010 and 2018, at which point they made up 28 percent of all U.S. workers. Looking ahead, all growth in the working-age population is projected to come from immigrant-origin adults through 2035.
Yet research on the future of work in the United States has largely overlooked this important segment of the workforce. This report examines the jobs held by immigrant-origin workers and third/higher-generation workers (those born in the United States to U.S.-born parents), and which of these jobs are likely to grow versus decline due to automation, offshoring, and other trends. It also considers the implications of the changing mix of jobs in the U.S. economy for both workforce development and immigration policy.
Read the full article about the role of immigrant-origin workers by Julia Gelatt, Jeanne Batalova, and Randy Capps at Migration Policy Institute.
This report is part of MPI’s multiyear Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy initiative, which aims to generate a big-picture, evidence-driven vision for the role immigration can and should play in America’s future.