Impact of Low-Skilled Immigrant Workers in Major United States Cities

March 26, 2000

On March 26, 2000, Roger Waldinger, chair of the sociology department at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc, spoke at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the results of his recent study for the forthcoming book, Strangers at the Gates: New Immigrants in Urban America. The study focused on low-skilled immigrant workers in the five United States cities with the highest concentration of immigrants: Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Chicago. Waldinger discussed the link between education and the ability to gain and maintain adequate employment for white men, African-American men, and immigrants; the effect of immigration on the native-born population; the gender gap in employment; and the upward mobility of second generation immigrants. Strangers at the Gates consists of several essays on new immigrants in urban America and will be published in September, 2001. The Carnegie Endowment's International Migration Policy Program hosted Professor Waldinger, and the program's co-director, Demetri Papademetriou, acted as moderator.

Demetri Papademetriou introduced the speaker and gave background information on Roger Waldinger's project. In the mid-1990s, many immigration experts realized they needed to do a better job of building the knowledge base on immigrants' effects on the economy and society. Waldinger's project began about four years ago. He is one of the leading academics on these issues and has written books about immigration in Los Angeles and New York which have been very well-received.

Waldinger then presented some of the results from the research for Strangers at the Gates. The book tracks changes in immigration that includes as much current data as possible; however, the 2000 census results are beginning to come out and may show some different trends. He proceeded to present several graphs depicting the statistical results of the study.

The first chart showed that a much larger proportion of the foreign-born in the United States has low skills compared to the native-born. Of white and black native-born men, a majority had an education level higher than the 12th grade; whereas the majority of Mexican immigrants have education levels lower than a high school diploma. Immigrants often have no counterparts among the U.S. native-born population in terms of low skills. Native-born Americans who did not finish elementary school are almost nonexistent, therefore a number of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. did not complete elementary education.

The second chart showed that the majority of newly arrived (between 1990 and 1998) immigrants to the U.S. are urban-bound. They tend to head to the five cities with the highest levels of immigrant density: Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Chicago. Despite some dispersion throughout the U.S., the immigrant population is "overwhelmingly concentrated" in these five cities. In 1960, 60 percent of immigrants lived outside these areas; in 2000, just over 50 percent of immigrants lived in other parts of the U.S. Immigration has transformed the demographics of these five cities. Low-skilled immigrants in particular gravitate toward immigrant-dense areas, so these areas receive much of the low-skilled immigrant population. The book asks, "What are the consequences of this pattern in an economy leaning more toward high skills?"

Waldinger compared the link between education and the likelihood of finding employment among native-born white men, native-born black men, and recent male immigrants. He found that white native-born men as a group have a slightly higher chance of finding employment if they have a higher education. Higher levels of education increases the likelihood of employment for native-born black men more than it does for white men; black men's employment levels are overall depressed compared to other male groups. Mexican foreign-born men have a similar level of employment compared to white native-born men, and higher education does little to increase their chances of finding a job, even though the majority have lower than a 12th grade level of education. (Note: Higher educational levels dramatically increase the chances of employment for Mexican foreign-born women.) Waldinger commented that newly-arrived immigrants often use familial and other connections to gain jobs.

However, high levels of employment do not necessarily mean that the employment is adequate. The study showed that African-American native-born men may have lower labor force participation levels than newly-arrived immigrant men, but African-Americans who are employed are more likely to have higher levels of pay than immigrant men. Women in both groups experience lower employment levels and lower quality of employment than men.

Immigrants who arrived between 1980 and 1990 show the same trend of high employment levels but low quality of employment compared to native-born Americans. Pre-1980 arrivals who have gained experience in the country tend to do a little better but exhibit the same trend.

Waldinger discussed the changes in mean real hourly wages between 1980 and 1990. On the national level, white native-born men experienced a slight decline in wages; all foreign-born men, especially Hispanics, experienced a major decline. Waldinger contributed the difference to the increasingly large proportion of unskilled immigrant workers in the U.S. However, he noted that cities do not always reflect the national trend. For example, in New York, native-born white men's wages increased, and foreign-born men's wages increased slightly (although foreign-born Hispanic men's wages decreased slightly) between 1980 and 1990. The results vary among the cities in Waldinger's study. One must look at the differences in regional levels to understand the national demographic trends.

Another finding of the study is that second generation immigrants tend to do much better compared to the native-born. For example, the children of Mexican immigrants show levels comparable to their native-born white counterparts. This may indicate that the differences in employment quality are due to low skills rather than ethnicity.

Waldinger also emphasized the "gender effect." Women in most of the ethnic groups show different patterns than the men. Women in all groups are at a disadvantage compared to the men in their groups.

The study also addresses the contention that immigrants have displaced African-Americans in the work force. The study found a shift in the labor market niches largely occupied by African-Americans. For example, many more African-Americans now work in the public sector. Since 1990, however, there has been no variation in the patterns of change of African-American niches between the five cities. However, there are major differences between the patterns of immigration received by the cities, so Waldinger concludes that the change in African-American labor niches has very little to do with increased immigration.

Discussion

• An audience member asked if immigrants have less of a presence in the public sector due to citizenship requirements. Waldinger responded that the importance of citizenship for public sector jobs has decreased, although such jobs generally require higher levels of skill. He agreed that the government is the most equitable employer for African-Americans and has made an effort to increase African-American employment.
• Doris Meissner, former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, asked if poverty levels from 1970 to 1990 changed much among African-Americans and immigrant groups. The speaker replied that he has no current information on that issue. He added that immigrants rely on connections to gain employment more than other groups. African-Americans do better in more bureaucratic industries because the bureaucratic process discourages discrimination and emphasizes skills. African-Americans also have higher rates of education than most new immigrant groups.
• Demetri Papademetriou questioned whether the labor market adapts to the availability of low-skilled workers or whether the low-skilled workers adapt to the demands of the labor market.
• Waldinger noted that the newest population data indicates that the foreign-born population in the U.S. may be larger than anyone had anticipated. There was a large difference between government estimates of the foreign-born derived from the Current Population Survey and those enumerated by the 2000 census.

Summary by Kerry Boyd, Junior Fellow in the International Migration Policy Program