E.g., 04/24/2024
E.g., 04/24/2024
Labor Market Impacts

Labor Market Impacts

Economic theory suggests that the impact of immigration overall on the economy is likely to be small and for any negative effects to dissipate over the longer term as the economy adjusts to a larger labor supply. The research collected here examines the labor market impacts of immigration, including how immigrant and native-born workers fare over time, as well as how their skill levels, countries of origin, gender, and other characteristics affect their outcomes in the workforce.

Recent Activity

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Fact Sheets
February 2013
By  Peter A. Creticos and Eleanor Sohnen
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Reports
May 2012
By  Randy Capps, Kristen McCabe and Michael Fix
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Reports
April 2012
By  Raymundo Campos-Vazquez and Horacio Sobarzo
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Reports
February 2012
By  Randall Hansen
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Reports
August 2011
By  Marc R. Rosenblum and Kate Brick

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In the 1990s, Mexican immigrants began to leave California, Texas, and Illinois for the so-called new settlement states where they had not previously resided. As Ivan Light of UCLA explains, their reasons for leaving or bypassing Los Angeles were both economic and political.

The addition of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union means another round of anxieties about labor migrants. Catherine Drew and Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah of the Institute for Public Policy Research in London explain how this enlargement is different from the historic one in 2004 and why most EU Member States favor temporary restriction.

Louka T. Katseli of the OECD Development Centre explains why effective migration policies in Europe are as much a political as a technical issue.

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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.

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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.

Testimony MR June2010
Video
June 30, 2010
Testimony of Marc Rosenblum, MPI Senior Policy Analyst, before the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
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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.

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Video, Audio
April 12, 2010

Public Policy Institute of California researchers Magnus Lofstrom and Laura Hill discuss their research examining the potential labor market outcomes and other possible economic effects of a legalization program.

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Recent Activity

Video, Webinars
November 15, 2021

MPI’s 20th Anniversary Conference featured the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, António Vitorino, in an armchair conversation with MPI co-founder and President Emeritus Demetrios G. Papademetriou, as well as a panel discussion with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and MPI co-founder Kathleen Newland and KIND President Wendy Young.

Expert Q&A, Audio
November 12, 2021

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.

Commentaries
October 2021

As European countries seek to revive their economies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, acute labor shortages in a variety of sectors risk stopping the recovery in its tracks. This commentary explores why these shortages are emerging and how immigration policy can form one part of the broader strategy to meet labor market needs.

Policy Briefs
September 2021

Immigrants, who lost jobs at a much higher rate than U.S.-born workers early in the COVID-19 pandemic, have since seen their unemployment rate drop below that of the U.S. born. Still, they are not well poised to take advantage of the economic recovery. This issue brief examines the extent of job losses and employment shifts for U.S. workers from mid-2019 to mid-2021, with trends broken down by nativity, gender, industry, and geographic region.

Reports
August 2021

Even as COVID-19 vaccination campaigns have picked up speed in Europe, economic uncertainty remains. Recently arrived refugees, migrant women, and other immigrants who faced labor market challenges before the pandemic have in many cases seen these challenges grow. This report explores the impact of the public-health crisis on migrants’ labor market integration and options for building inclusive pandemic recovery strategies.

Articles

The United Kingdom was once a country primarily of emigration, but in recent decades many more migrants have arrived at its borders than have left. This decades-long transition was interrupted by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, and this article describes the inflection point at which the country finds itself.

Policy Briefs
June 2021

Immigrant workers have been hit hard by the pandemic-related economic crisis across the United States and in many states with the largest immigrant populations. This issue brief examines how workers in different states and different industries have fared, looking at how employment trends have been shaped by state-level factors such as the length and timing of stay-at-home orders and definitions of who is an “essential” worker.

Audio, Webinars
June 24, 2021

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. The conversation includes immigrant and employer voices who explore the promising strategies that exist to mitigate this brain waste for the benefit of the U.S. economy, local communities, and the workers themselves.

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