Immigrants are not taking ‘black jobs:’ new study

A new analysis out on August 29 takes on the question of whether immigrants are displacing U.S.-born Black workers, finding that the perception of displacement is not borne out by the data.

While immigrants represent a growing share of the U.S. workforce and have expanded their presence across industries, Migration Policy Institute (MPI) Senior Policy Analyst Valerie Lacarte demonstrates that U.S.-born Black workers have maintained their share of a prime-age labor market even as it has expanded substantially.

The number of U.S.-born Black prime-age workers increased by nearly 2.4 million between 1990 and 2022, analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows. The drop in the native-born share was primarily driven by a decline in the number of non-Latino White U.S.-born workers due to aging and falling birth rates. The growth in U.S.-born Black prime-age workers partially compensated for the 10.2 million fewer U.S.-born White workers in the job market in 2022 as compared to 1990.

The perception that immigrants are taking “Black jobs” may be due to immigrants’ movement across industries and geographic regions, with immigrants and U.S.-born Black workers having a higher concentration in southern states over recent decades, the commentary notes.

The piece argues that focusing on perceived job displacement distracts from crucial policy discussions on adapting to economic and demographic change, as well as fostering a dynamic, diverse workforce.

“As U.S.-born and immigrant workers increasingly work side by side, and as ongoing global forces and technological changes reshape the economy’s mix of occupations, it is to be expected that jobs and the composition of the workforce will, and perhaps should, change,” Lacarte writes. “Policymakers should consider increased investments in training and retraining to help all U.S. workers adapt.”

The reality is that the number of U.S. jobs has continually grown, so that even as foreign-born workers have claimed a growing share of the U.S. labor market and expanded their presence across industries, it does not appear that this has occurred at the expense of U.S.-born Black workers. At the same time, immigrants’ movement across industries and geographic regions may explain why the foreign-born workforce has become more visible, creating perceptions of a displacement effect in the U.S.-born Black community that does not actually exist.

Read the commentary here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/beyond-black-jobs-controversy.

The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org