NCIIP: Employment and Workforce

Policy Briefs

October 2023

Leveraging Data to Ensure Equitable and Effective Adult Skills Programming for Immigrants

Adult immigrant students work together in an English class

iStock.com/shironosov

Immigrants make significant contributions to the U.S. economy and social fabric, but many also face barriers to integration. Adult education and workforce development programs offer services intended to help address such challenges yet can be mismatched to immigrants' needs. This issue brief sketches a profile of U.S.-born and immigrant adults, highlighting key similarities and differences relevant to the design of adult skills programs.

Commentaries

November 2022

Apprenticeship Programs Are a Promising Solution to Bring More Multilingual Workers into Early Childhood Field

Photo of a preschool teacher reading to students.

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

Shortages of workers continue to plague early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems across the United States. With the field already struggling to effectively serve young children in families that speak languages other than English, apprenticeship programs offer a promising solution to bring more—and more multilingual—workers into early childhood careers.

Reports

February 2022

The IELCE Program: Understanding Its Design and Challenges in Meeting Immigrant Learners’ Needs

Immigrant adults working together at a long table in a classroom

iStock.com/lisegagne

U.S. adult education systems have undergone significant changes, including to programs supporting immigrant integration. The creation of the Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education (IELCE) program has sparked the development of innovative initiatives, but also raised concerns about their accessibility and ability to meet immigrant adults’ diverse learning goals and needs.

Policy Briefs

December 2021

The Invisible Work of Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregivers and Its Importance for Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families

A grandmother and young grandchild painting at home

iStock.com/ideasRojas

Child care provided informally by relatives, friends, and neighbors is the most common form of U.S. child care, and it is particularly prevalent among immigrant and Dual Language Learner families. Yet it is frequently overlooked in child-care policy conversations. This brief explores the importance of this type of care and highlights promising practices for increasing support for care providers and the families they serve.

Commentaries

November 2021

Narrowing the Skills Gap: Equipping Immigrant-Origin Workers with Postsecondary Credentials

Photo of woman walking around a school campus.

iStock.com/RyanJLane

The number of U.S. adults who could benefit from efforts to boost postsecondary credential attainment is strikingly large. Nearly 96 million working-age adults lack a postsecondary credential, 28 million of them of immigrant origin, MPI estimates. This commentary examines how enabling immigrant-origin adults to attain credentials beyond a high school diploma is vital to both building a skilled workforce and closing equity gaps.

Fact Sheets

April 2021

Immigrant and U.S.-Born Parents of Young and Elementary-School-Age Children: Key Sociodemographic Characteristics

Parents and their children sit in a library for Princeton Children's Book Festival 2018

Princeton Public Library

Parents play an important role in supporting their children’s education, but certain factors—such as limited English proficiency, low levels of formal education, and digital access barriers—can make it difficult to do so. This fact sheet series looks at the characteristics of immigrant and U.S.-born parents of young and elementary-school-age children in 31 states and nationwide, and discusses how taking a two-generation approach to services can benefit entire families.

Recent Activity

Reports April 2024 How Immigrants and Their U.S.-Born Children Fit into the Future U.S. Labor Market By Jeanne Batalova, Julia Gelatt and Michael Fix	Articles January 26, 2024 Aging Societies Rely on Immigrant Health-Care Workers, Posing Challenges for Origin Countries By Heidi Bludau
Reports November 2023 Immigration and Integration in the Ever More Diverse Houston Area By Valerie Lacarte, Michael Fix and Jeanne Batalova	Policy Briefs October 2023 Leveraging Data to Ensure Equitable and Effective Adult Skills Programming for Immigrants By Jacob Hofstetter and Margie McHugh
Policy Briefs October 2023 Shared Gains: Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Colleges By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Commentaries August 2023 Investing in the Future: Higher Ed Should Give Greater Focus to Growing Immigrant-Origin Student Population By Jeanne Batalova and Miriam Feldblum
Multimedia April 19, 2023 Career and Technical Education as a Bridge to High School English Learner Success	Fact Sheets December 2022 The Skills and Economic Outcomes of Immigrant and U.S.-Born College Graduates By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix

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Reports April 2024 How Immigrants and Their U.S.-Born Children Fit into the Future U.S. Labor Market By Jeanne Batalova, Julia Gelatt and Michael Fix	Reports November 2023 Immigration and Integration in the Ever More Diverse Houston Area By Valerie Lacarte, Michael Fix and Jeanne Batalova
Policy Briefs October 2023 Leveraging Data to Ensure Equitable and Effective Adult Skills Programming for Immigrants By Jacob Hofstetter and Margie McHugh	Policy Briefs October 2023 Shared Gains: Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Colleges By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
Fact Sheets December 2022 The Skills and Economic Outcomes of Immigrant and U.S.-Born College Graduates By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Fact Sheets November 2022 A Profile of Low-Income Immigrants in the United States By Julia Gelatt, Valerie Lacarte and Joshua Rodriguez
Policy Briefs October 2022 Diverging Pathways: Immigrants’ Legal Status and Access to Postsecondary Credentials By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Policy Briefs April 2022 Leveraging the Skills of Immigrant Health-Care Professionals in Illinois and Chicago By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix

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Feature

January 26, 2024

Aging Societies Rely on Immigrant Health-Care Workers, Posing Challenges for Origin Countries

Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are increasingly relying on immigrant health-care workers to fill gaps in their workforce and care for aging populations. That has created opportunities for many foreign-born doctors and nurses, but could harm their origin countries. This article examines the dynamics of global health-care worker migration, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

HealthWorkers_Flickr_JakeGreenbergUSPacificFleet

Spotlight

May 14, 2020

Immigrant Health-Care Workers in the United States

Immigrants make up a disproportionately high number of U.S. health-care workers, from doctors and nurses to home health aides. In 2018, more than 2.6 million immigrants worked in the U.S. health-care field. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, immigrants have played a key role in the frontline response. This article explores the demographics of this group of essential workers by occupation, origin, language, education, and more.

YoungImmigrantLineUp1 WBEZPeterHolderness Flickr

Feature

August 13, 2015

Origin and Community: Asian and Latin American Unauthorized Youth and U.S. Deportation Relief

This article explores differences in application and renewal rates for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program among unauthorized immigrants from Latin America and Asia. Based on interviews with immigrant advocates and service providers, it appears participation in the deportation relief program may be different among origin groups based on varying perceptions of lack of trust in government and shame over legal status, as well as political barriers.

Commentaries

August 2023

Investing in the Future: Higher Ed Should Give Greater Focus to Growing Immigrant-Origin Student Population

By Jeanne Batalova and Miriam Feldblum

Commentaries

November 2022

Apprenticeship Programs Are a Promising Solution to Bring More Multilingual Workers into Early Childhood Field

By Jacob Hofstetter, Alexis Fintland and Maki Park

Commentaries

November 2021

Narrowing the Skills Gap: Equipping Immigrant-Origin Workers with Postsecondary Credentials

By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix

Bhutanese refugee sits on bed in family's apartment in New York

Commentaries

June 2021

A Solvable Challenge: Improving Asylee Access to Health and Other Benefits

By Essey Workie, Mark Greenberg and Lillie Hinkle

Commentaries

February 2021

A Deeper Look at the DREAMers Who Could Feature in the Legalization Debate in Congress

By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix

Commentaries

December 2020

The Role of Immigrant Health-Care Professionals in the United States during the Pandemic

By Michael Fix, Jeanne Batalova and José Ramón Fernández-Peña

Commentaries

October 2020

Broad and Blunt, the Trump Administration’s H-1B Changes Miss the Opportunity for Real Reform

By Sarah Pierce

Commentaries

March 2019

More Than a DREAM (Act), Less Than a Promise

By Julia Gelatt

Commentaries

September 2017

All Eyes Turn to Congress, Following Trump Decision to Terminate DACA Program

By Julia Gelatt

Commentaries

June 2017

Immigrants and the New Brain Gain: Ways to Leverage Rising Educational Attainment

By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix

Pages

Video

April 19, 2023

Career and Technical Education as a Bridge to High School English Learner Success

This webinar, marking the launch of a report, looks at career and technical education programs and federal, state, and school district policies that support English Learners' inclusion in these programs.

Expert Q&A, Audio

November 12, 2021

Leveraging the Benefits That Immigration Can Bring

In this World of Migration podcast episode, MPI Senior Fellow Michael Fix speaks with Senior Policy Analyst Julia Gelatt about the fiscal impacts of immigration, the importance of immigrant integration, how a greater focus on credential recognition could allow immigrants to more fully utilize the academic and professional skills they bring with them, and much more.

Audio

June 24, 2021

Brain Waste among Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States: A Persistent Problem with Increasing Costs

During this webcast, experts discuss findings from a report examining at U.S. and state levels the underemployment of college graduates by nativity and by race and ethnicity, in the process revealing patterns of economic inequality.

flickr Seattle OIRA August 2015 Ready to Work Graduation Celebration Credit Nate Gowdy Photography

Video, Audio

January 23, 2020

Employment Services for Refugees: Leveraging Mainstream U.S. Systems and Funding

On this webinar, experts and state refugee resettlement program leaders discuss activities that can be key parts of a broader strategy for sustaining and improving employment services for refugees, including partnerships with experts in workforce development strategies, access to federal workforce development funding, and other policies and resources.

Video, Audio

May 9, 2019

A Mirror for the Nation? The Changing Profile of Mexican Immigrants in Texas

At this discussion, experts from MPI and Southern Methodist University’s Texas-Mexico Center offer an overview of trends and key characteristics of highly skilled Mexican adults at the national level and for Texas, including educational levels by legal status and top industries of employment across Texas metro areas. They also discuss the policy implications of these findings.

Recent Activity

Policy Briefs

October 2018

English Plus Integration: Shifting the Instructional Paradigm for Immigrant Adult Learners to Support Integration Success

To successfully integrate, immigrants and refugees need a variety of skills and knowledge—from English proficiency to understanding how school systems and local services work. Yet the adult education programs in place to support them have narrowed in scope. This policy brief proposes a new instructional model, English Plus Integration, to help states more comprehensively meet the diverse needs of their adult immigrant learners.

Reports

September 2018

A Profile of Houston’s Diverse Immigrant Population in a Rapidly Changing Policy Landscape

The Houston metro area, home to 1.6 million immigrants, is diverse and rapidly growing. This report sketches the area's immigrant population, examining top origin countries, key socioeconomic measures, and more. It also explores how Hurricane Harvey affected the immigrant population, and how national policy changes under the Trump administration are being felt locally, including by DACA recipients and asylum seekers.

Reports

August 2018

Tapping the Talents of Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States: Takeaways from Experts Summit

Economists project a shortage of 5 million U.S. workers with postsecondary education and training by 2020. Yet 2 million immigrant college graduates in the United States are either unemployed or work in jobs that require no more than a high school degree. How can this skill underutilization, known as "brain waste," be remedied? MPI asked the experts, and this report summarizes their discussion and recommendations.

Policy Briefs

December 2017

New Opportunities? ESSA and Its Implications for Dual Language Learners and ECEC Workforce Development

Enactment of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015 introduced opportunities to use federal funds to strengthen the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce as a means of better meeting the needs of the growing and increasingly diverse young child population.

Commentaries

September 2017

All Eyes Turn to Congress, Following Trump Decision to Terminate DACA Program

By winding down DACA over six months, President Trump may have addressed a short-term political dilemma. But this action ensures debate will rage on in search of a lasting solution, as many in Congress and beyond recognize the loss of work authorization and deportation relief will affect not only DACA recipients and their families, but also employers, universities, and communities alike, as this commentary explores.

Reports

August 2017

Quality for Whom? Supporting Diverse Children and Workers in Early Childhood Quality Rating and Improvement Systems

For children in U.S. homes where a language other than English is spoken, early childhood programs that are responsive to their needs can be key to later academic success. But as states refine their Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) to assess such programs, immigrant early childhood workers with in-demand language and cultural skills may be left behind. This report examines the challenges these workers face and promising practices to serve diverse communities.

Policy Briefs

August 2017

The Education and Work Profiles of the DACA Population

The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is uncertain, amid skepticism from the Trump administration about its merits and the promise of legal challenge from ten state attorneys general. This issue brief presents a profile of young adults eligible for DACA in terms of their educational attainment and labor force participation, as well as what is at stake should the program be terminated.

Commentaries

June 2017

Immigrants and the New Brain Gain: Ways to Leverage Rising Educational Attainment

A recent MPI study reveals that 48 percent of recent immigrants to the United States were college graduates, a sharp increase over earlier periods. How can the United States better leverage this brain gain? This commentary outlines some policies that could allow the United States to more fully utilize the professional and academic credentials that highly skilled immigrants have, for their benefit and that of the U.S. economy.

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