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 September 2018 A Profile of Houston’s Diverse Immigrant Population in a Rapidly Changing Policy Landscape By Randy Capps and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto	Reports August 2018 Tapping the Talents of Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States: Takeaways from Experts Summit By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
Policy Briefs December 2017 New Opportunities? ESSA and Its Implications for Dual Language Learners and ECEC Workforce Development By Delia Pompa, Maki Park and Michael Fix	Commentaries September 2017 All Eyes Turn to Congress, Following Trump Decision to Terminate DACA Program By Julia Gelatt
Reports August 2017 Quality for Whom? Supporting Diverse Children and Workers in Early Childhood Quality Rating and Improvement Systems By Julie Sugarman and Maki Park	Policy Briefs August 2017 The Education and Work Profiles of the DACA Population By Randy Capps, Michael Fix and Jie Zong
Commentaries June 2017 Immigrants and the New Brain Gain: Ways to Leverage Rising Educational Attainment By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Multimedia February 28, 2017 Reducing Integration Barriers Facing Foreign-Trained Immigrants: Policy and Practice Lessons from Across the United States

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Reports April 2015 Immigrant and Refugee Workers in the Early Childhood Field: Taking a Closer Look By Maki Park, Margie McHugh, Jeanne Batalova and Jie Zong	Reports March 2015 A Profile of Immigrants in Houston, the Nation's Most Diverse Metropolitan Area By Randy Capps, Michael Fix and Chiamaka Nwosu
Reports February 2015 Through an Immigrant Lens: PIAAC Assessment of the Competencies of Adults in the United States By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Reports September 2014 Diploma, Please: Promoting Educational Attainment for DACA- and Potential DREAM Act-Eligible Youth By Margie McHugh
Reports August 2014 DACA at the Two-Year Mark: A National and State Profile of Youth Eligible and Applying for Deferred Action By Jeanne Batalova, Sarah Hooker and Randy Capps	Reports June 2014 Critical Choices in Post-Recession California: Investing in the Educational and Career Success of Immigrant Youth By Sarah Hooker, Margie McHugh and Michael Fix
Fact Sheets May 2014 Brain Waste in the Workforce: Select U.S. and State Characteristics of College-Educated Native-Born and Immigrant Adults By Margie McHugh, Jeanne Batalova and Madeleine Morawski	Reports March 2014 Education Reform in a Changing Georgia: Promoting High School and College Success for Immigrant Youth By Sarah Hooker, Michael Fix and Margie McHugh

Recent Activity

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.

Video, Audio, Webinars

February 28, 2017

Reducing Integration Barriers Facing Foreign-Trained Immigrants: Policy and Practice Lessons from Across the United States

Marking the release of a report on the barriers foreign-trained high-skilled immigrants face in the United States, this webinar examines programs and initiatives that assist with credential recognition, employment, and relicensure, as well as recent policy developments. Discussants review recommendations for community-based organizations, employers, and policymakers to expand successful efforts aimed at preventing brain waste.

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