Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Market

The general perception of an increased presence of foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor market is well grounded in changes in the U.S. immigration experience. Relative to the population, immigration has increased fivefold since the trough of the 1930s, and in recent years the annual legal inflow has been about 2.2 immigrants per year per thousand population. Even more dramatic is the change in the countries of origin. In the past 15 years, Europe and Canada have declined in importance as sources of immigrants, while Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have increased in importance. Illegal immigration has also increased. Overall, adult male immigrants earn about the same as the adult male native-born population, but important differences among the foreign born are attributable to duration of residence in the United States, reason for migrating, and country of origin. On arrival, immigrants have low earnings compared with the native born, but with increased length of U.S. residence, their earnings rise. Economic migrants reach earnings equality with the native born when they have been in the United States for about 11 to 15 years. Refugees and tied movers have lower earnings than those who move for economic reasons. Illegal aliens from Mexico have labor market characteristics very similar to those of legal immigrants from Mexico.