Not In Competition: Data Underscores Differences Between Immigrant and Native Born Workers

The Immigration Policy Center has released a report on the difference between immigrant and native born workers.

The paper examines  the idea that during an economic downturn, working immigrants, take jobs from native born workers.

The findings of the paper show that this idea is empirically false. Immigrants and native born workers do not compete for the same jobs overall.

The report notes that:

The data demonstrates—as have other, more detailed analyses2—that most foreign-born workers differ from most native-born workers in terms of what occupations they work in, where in the country they live, and how much education they have. What this means in practical terms is that most native-born workers are not directly competing for jobs with immigrant workers because they are in different labor markets.

The concept that immigrant and native born workers often exist in completely seperate labor markets is an important distinction to make. This distinction in the type of work that immigrants and native born workers engage in shows that they are not ever in direct competition for jobs.

Please read the full report here.