E.g., 06/18/2024
E.g., 06/18/2024
Skills

Skills

Skills

Foreign-born workers increasingly can be found in occupations across the skills spectrum in many countries—high-, middle-, and low-skilled. While much of the focus in advanced economies is on immigrants in high- and low-skilled professions, an increasing share are working in middle-skilled jobs. The research here examines immigrant workers by skill levels—which sectors they are working in, what share of the workforce they constitute, and how they fare compared to their native-born peers.

Recent Activity

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Recent Activity

Video, Audio
January 13, 2011

In a report by MPI's Labor Markets Initiative, noted economist and Georgetown University Public Policy Institute Professor Harry J. Holzer examines the economic reasoning and research on these questions and looks at the policy options that shape the impact of less-skilled immigration on the economy. The discussion is on what policy reform would best serve native-born American workers, consumers, and employers, as well as the overall U.S. economy.

Reports
January 2011

Notwithstanding the broad consensus on the benefits of highly skilled immigration, the economic role of less-skilled immigrants is one of the more controversial questions in the immigration debate. While less-skilled immigrants bring economic benefits for U.S. consumers, employers, and skilled workers, they impose some costs on U.S. workers competing for similar jobs.

Reports
October 2010

Immigrants have been disproportionately hit by the global economic crisis that began in 2008 and now confront a number of challenges. The report, which has a particular focus on Germany, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and United States finds that the unemployment gap between immigrant and native workers has widened in many places.

Video, Audio
September 20, 2010

This important MPI report challenges the conventional wisdom about the immigrant workforce, using a sophisticated new method of analysis that permits deeper examination of how workers – immigrant and native-born – fare by economic sector, the skill level of their jobs, and educational attainment.

Reports
September 2010

Despite conventional wisdom that the U.S. immigrant workforce is shaped like an hourglass—wide at the top and the bottom but narrow in the middle— in reality immigrants are more evenly dispersed across the skills spectrum. This report shows that the fastest growth in immigrant employment since 2000 has occurred in middle-skilled jobs.

Video, Audio
June 7, 2010

The long-term impact of immigration on the average income of Americans is small but positive. In the short term, however, immigration may slightly reduce native employment and average income. This discussion explores findings of a report analyzing both short- and long-run impacts of immigration on average and over the business cycle.

Reports
June 2010

A broad consensus exists that the long-term impact of immigration on Americans' average income is small but positive, improving employment, productivity, and income. In the short term, however, immigration may slightly reduce native employment and average income. This report provides an analysis of short- and long-run impacts of immigration over the business cycle.

Reports
May 2010

This statement from the fourth plenary meeting of the Transatlantic Council on Migration focuses on immigrant integration and how to shift focus back onto integration as a continuous and interactive process, even amidst the tumult of a persistent economic crisis.

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