Contextualizing Immigrant Labor Market Incorporation

Abstract

This article provides the Work and Occupations readership with an overview of U.S. immigration trends, and it discusses some of the scholarly and public policy debates surrounding the particular labor market patterns of recent immigrants. The first section focuses on how the history of U.S. immigration policy has shaped the flow and composition of today’s foreign-born workers. The second section underscores some of the demographic and economic consequences of recent large-scale immigration. The third section draws on census data to profile contemporary immigrant workers. The remainder of the article highlights the major empirical and theoretical contributions that each article makes toward understanding how different immigrant groups become inserted into U.S. employment structures. Then, it discusses recent debates in the literature on immigration and labor markets with an eye toward the current and future role of immigration policy.