The sudden revelation of Jose Antonio Vargas immigration status naturally brings the whole Immigration Issue to the front page. And there are two Conventional Wisdom arguments that have always bothered me.
* Immigrants take jobs away from hardworking, native Americans
* Immigrants do jobs that hardworking, native Americans won't do.
Well, on the face of it, both of those CW arguments can't be true. If it's a job that Americans won't do, then immigrants can't really be "taking" them, right? If I don't take it, if I don't own it, then you can't be taking it "away" from me.
To study these arguments, I have turned to a report from The Center for Immigration Studies, titled, Jobs Americans Won't Do?
The data for this analysis are from the public-use file of the combined three-year sample of the American Community Survey (ACS) for 2005 through 2007. This is the first public-use three-year file to be released by the Census Bureau. The public-use file of the ACS is enormous, allowing for detailed analysis by occupation. The sample includes 4.4 million individuals in the civilian non-institutionalized labor force, about 560,000 of whom are immigrants. ... The immigrant population, which can also be referred to as the foreign-born, is defined as persons living in the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth. In the ACS this includes people who responded to the survey who are naturalized American citizens, legal permanent residents (green card holders), illegal aliens, and people on long-term temporary visas such as students or guest workers.
The data compares those born in the United States to those born outside the United States, regardless of their legal status within the United States. Legal and illegal immigrants, students, etc. Only people classified as being in the labor force (over 16 and working or looking for work) are considered.
According to this study, based on Census Data, about 15% of the workforce in the U.S. is immigrant.
Native Born Workers: 125,817,561
Immigrant Workers: 22,902,948
Actual sample size: 3,775,133 Native, 556,902 Immigrant.
So if only 15% of the workforce are immigrants, legal or otherwise, they have a marked affect on the labor market in whole, but can't really be classified as "taking all of our jobs."
But what about those jobs that Americans won't do? If it is true that there are some types of work immigrants dominate, the data will show that, right?
Here are the top ten occupations held by immigrants.
Occupation |
% of jobs held by Immigrants |
CON-Plasterers & Stucco Masons |
56% |
FFF-Graders & Sorters, Agricultural Products |
54% |
PRS-Misc. Personal Appearance Workers |
53% |
PRD-Tailors, Dressmakers, & Sewers |
51% |
FFF-Misc. Agricultural Workers, Incl. Animal Breeders |
50% |
PRD-Sewing Machine Operators |
50% |
CON-Drywall installers, Ceiling Tile Installers, & Tapers |
47% |
PRD-Pressers, Textile, Garment, & Related Materials |
46% |
CLN-Maids & Housekeeping Cleaners |
45% |
SCI-Medical Scientists |
44% |
Only 4 jobs are majority immigrants, and of those, they are still less than 60% immigrant. Not exactly a monopoly.
Look closer at those job titles, too. These are not unskilled labor jobs. They might be classified as blue collar, but they're the skilled and semi-skilled jobs that our parents and grandparents worked with pride. And look at the last of the above list; the tenth highest percentage of immigrant workers are Medical Scientists.
Ever try hanging drywall? Or plastering a wall? Or sewing a suit? These are learned skills, and hard learned, too. They require a period of training and something like apprenticeship, before the worker can be called good at them. Maybe those jobs are held by immigrants because native born Americans have forgotten the skills to perform them. We were pushed into accounting and law school and business. "Plastics, my boy!" Are they jobs Americans won't do, or jobs Americans CAN'T do?
Except for one, maids and housecleaners, they are certainly not the stereotypical jobs that news media plasters on the pages and screens, like harvesting crops or hanging out in front of Home Depot.
(farm work, construction, cleaning and janitorial.)
Here are those stereotypical jobs and the percentage of the workforce that is immigrant.
CON-Plasterers & Stucco Masons |
56% |
FFF-Graders & Sorters, Agricultural Products |
54% |
CLN-Maids & Housekeeping Cleaners |
45% |
CON-Roofers |
39% |
CON-Painters, Construction & Maintenance |
37% |
PRD-Butchers & Other Meat, Poultry, & Fish Processing Workers |
37% |
CLN-Grounds Maintenance Workers |
35% |
CON-Construction Laborers |
35% |
CON-Carpenters |
25% |
CLN-Janitors & Building Cleaners |
25% |
MGR-Farm, Ranch, & Other Agricultural Managers |
9% |
MGR-Farmers & Ranchers |
3% |
If 56% of plaster and stucco masons are immigrant, that means 44% are not. "They" are not talking "all of our jobs."
Just for balance, let's look at the bottom ten. The jobs immigrants are NOT doing.
PRT-First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Police & Detectives |
3% |
MED-Audiologists |
3% |
PRT-Fire Fighters |
3% |
PRS-Funeral Service Workers |
2% |
PRT-Animal Control Workers |
2% |
PRD-Power Plant Operators, Distributors, & Dispatchers |
2% |
TRN-Railroad Conductors & Yardmasters |
2% |
PRT-First-line supervisors/Managers of Fire Fighting & Prevention |
2% |
MGR-Funeral Directors |
2% |
SCI-Conservation Scientists & Foresters |
1% |
I think the data clearly shows that immigrants are NOT taking all of our jobs, and are NOT taking jobs that Americans won't do.