Low-Skilled Immigrants and the U.S. Labor Market

Brian Duncan () and Stephen Trejo
Additional contact information
Brian Duncan: University of Colorado Denver

No 5964, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Over the last several decades, two of the most significant developments in the U.S. labor market have been: (1) rising inequality, and (2) growth in both the size and the diversity of immigration flows. Because a large share of new immigrants arrive with very low levels of schooling, English proficiency, and other skills that have become increasingly important determinants of success in the U.S. labor market, an obvious concern is that such immigrants are a poor fit for the restructured American economy. In this chapter, we evaluate this concern by discussing evidence for the United States on three relevant topics: the labor market integration of immigrants, the socioeconomic attainment of the U.S.-born descendants of immigrants, and the impact of immigration on the wages and employment opportunities of native workers. We show that low-skilled immigrants have little trouble finding paid employment and that the wages they earn are commensurate with their skills. Overall, the U.S.-born second generation has achieved economic parity with mainstream society; for some Hispanic groups, however, this is not the case. Finally, we survey the pertinent academic literature and conclude that, on the whole, immigration to the United States has not had large adverse consequences for the labor market opportunities of native workers.

Keywords: assimilation; generational progress; immigrant labor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 J62 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 68 pages
Date: 2011-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published as 'The Employment of Low-Skilled Immigrant Men in the United States' in: American Economic Review, 2012, 102 (3), 549-554

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp5964.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5964

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().