E.g., 04/16/2024
E.g., 04/16/2024
Skills

Skills

Skills

Foreign-born workers increasingly can be found in occupations across the skills spectrum in many countries—high-, middle-, and low-skilled. While much of the focus in advanced economies is on immigrants in high- and low-skilled professions, an increasing share are working in middle-skilled jobs. The research here examines immigrant workers by skill levels—which sectors they are working in, what share of the workforce they constitute, and how they fare compared to their native-born peers.

Recent Activity

Coverthumb Tapping the Talents Summit Summary
Reports
August 2018
Tapping the Talents of Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States: Takeaways from Experts Summit
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
vanishing_frontiers_cover
Books
June 2018
Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together
By  Andrew Selee
Canadian family on Canada Day
Articles
June 7, 2018
Canadian Immigrants in the United States
By Elijah Alperin and Jeanne Batalova
Coverthumb_H 1B BrinkofReform Brief
Policy Briefs
March 2018
Evolution of the H-1B: Latest Trends in a Program on the Brink of Reform
By  Sarah Pierce and Julia Gelatt
Coverthumb DataMatters2018
Reports
November 2020
Immigration Data Matters
By  Jeanne Batalova, Andriy Shymonyak and Michelle Mittelstadt
Mexican workers in Canada
Articles
March 7, 2018
Connecting the Dots: Emerging Migration Trends and Policy Questions in North and Central America
By Claudia Masferrer, Víctor M. García-Guerrero, and Silvia E. Giorguli-Saucedo
Refugees attend a job training fair
Articles
February 27, 2018
Newcomers in the North: Labor Market Integration of Refugees in Northern Europe
By Patrick Joyce
Chinese lanterns
Articles
February 15, 2018
Australia: A Welcoming Destination for Some
By Christine Inglis

Pages

coverthumb DGUK Policy
Reports
October 2014
Benign Neglect? Policies to Support Upward Mobility for Immigrants in the United Kingdom
By  Rachel Marangozov
thumb DGCzechPolicy2014
Reports
October 2014
Building an Integration System: Policies to Support Immigrants’ Progression in the Czech Labor Market
By  Dušan Drbohlav and Ondřej Valenta
thumb TCMcitiesRotterdam 2014
Reports
September 2014
Rotterdam: A Long-Time Port of Call and Home to Immigrants
By  Han Entzinger and Godfried Engbersen
thumb MainstreamingDenmark2014
Reports
September 2014
Decentralising Immigrant Integration: Denmark’s Mainstreaming Initiatives in Employment, Education, and Social Affairs
By  Martin Bak Jørgensen
coverthumb DGSwedenPolicy
Reports
September 2014
No Quick Fix: Policies to Support the Labor Market Integration of New Arrivals in Sweden
By  Henrik Emilsson
coverthumb TCM Cities Entrepreneurship
Reports
August 2014
Policies to Support Immigrant Entrepreneurship
By  Maria Vincenza Desiderio
thumb TCMcitiesLondon2014
Reports
August 2014
The Human-Capital Needs of Tech City, London
By  Max Nathan
coverthumb TCM Cities NatlPolicy
Reports
July 2014
Giving Cities and Regions a Voice in Immigration Policy: Can National Policies Meet Local Demand?
By  Madeleine Sumption

Pages

Recent Activity

Reports
August 2018

Tapping the Talents of Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States: Takeaways from Experts Summit

Economists project a shortage of 5 million U.S. workers with postsecondary education and training by 2020. Yet 2 million immigrant college graduates in the United States are either unemployed or work in jobs that require no more than a high school degree. How can this skill underutilization, known as "brain waste," be remedied? MPI asked the experts, and this report summarizes their discussion and recommendations.

Books
June, 2018

Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together

Wall or no wall, deeply intertwined social, economic, business, cultural, and personal relationships mean the U.S.-Mexico border is more like a seam than a barrier, weaving together two economies and cultures, as MPI President Andrew Selee sketches in this book, which draws from his travels and discussions with people from all walks of life in Mexico and the United States.

Articles
June 7, 2018

Canadian Immigrants in the United States

Though small, the population of Canadians in the United States is quite diverse, and includes students, highly skilled professionals on H-1B or NAFTA visas, family migrants, and retirees. Canadian immigrants have much higher educational attainment and incomes than the native- and overall foreign-born populations. This article offers an interesting data snapshot of Canadians in the United States.

Policy Briefs
March 2018

Evolution of the H-1B: Latest Trends in a Program on the Brink of Reform

Though much attention focuses on the 85,000 temporary high-skilled visas issued each April through a computer-generated lottery, in reality far more H-1B visas are awarded outside the cap. This brief takes stock of changing trends in the program, finding that the largest H-1B dependent employers pay less and hire fewer foreign workers with advanced degrees than other top users that rely less on the temporary visa.

Reports
November 2020

Immigration Data Matters

This useful online guide links users directly to the most credible, high-quality data on immigrants and immigration in the United States and internationally. The easy-to-use guide includes more than 250 data resources compiled by governmental and nongovernmental sources, covering topics ranging from population stock and flow numbers to statistics on enforcement, public opinion, religious affiliation, and much more.

Articles
March 7, 2018

Connecting the Dots: Emerging Migration Trends and Policy Questions in North and Central America

Together, Canada, Mexico, and the United States are home to nearly one-quarter of the world's migrants. Despite shifts in the profile of those who migrate and changing demographic realities across the region, such as population aging, perceptions and policies remain set in earlier eras. This article explores the intersection of migration and population dynamics in North America and the Northern Triangle of Central America.

Articles
February 27, 2018

Newcomers in the North: Labor Market Integration of Refugees in Northern Europe

After receiving more than 2 million asylum seekers in 2015-16, European countries are turning to the task of integrating the newcomers, including getting refugees into work. This article explores labor market integration of refugees in five Northern European countries—Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden—drawing key lessons for today from the experiences of earlier groups of humanitarian arrivals.

Articles
February 15, 2018

Australia: A Welcoming Destination for Some

Immigration has driven economic and social development in Australia for more than two centuries. Even as more than one-fourth of the country’s population is foreign born and Australia ranks third among top refugee resettlement countries worldwide, controversy surrounding its hardline treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat has cast a shadow on its reputation as a welcoming country, as this article explores.

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