Immigrant Skills Essay

Geography of immigrant skills
With the recent focus on border control and illegal immigration, the important role immigrants play in the labor market needs to be addressed. Immigrants account for nearly one-in-six workers in the U.S. The United States continues to experience extraordinary levels of growth despite the recent recession that slowed global immigration. Although the majority of immigrants admitted to the US as permanent residents have family here, controversy over job competition and wage effects has led to policies targeting undocumented immigrants. In a globalizing economy where labor is increasing in demand, US policies will determine how competitive we are in the global market. The clustering of immigrant settlement patterns by skill level suggests we need to take a closer look at underlying labor demands to create a more responsive comprehensive immigration policies. Why do we have so many immigrants?
Although the majority of immigrants come to the U.S. because they have family here, the H-1B temporary visa program has played a significant role in
In areas where the percentage of recent arrivals is lower, immigrants are more likely to be citizens and speak English. This shows that English proficiency and citizenship increases with the amount of time spent in the U.S. Less skilled immigrants are more likely to work and less likely to live in poverty than their native born counterparts. Many areas with the fastest growing immigrant populations have expanding economies; this contributes to lower unemployment for low skilled immigrants in comparison to low skilled native born citizens. Low skilled native born citizens earn $5000 more than low skilled immigrants on average. Many of the jobs performed by low skilled immigrants are jobs low skilled native born citizens will not do, filling another gap in the U.S. labor