Immigrant Workers
Labor Center Projects
Immigrant Worker Overview
Immigrant Worker Resources
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Immigrants have been a pillar of the American economy throughout the nation’s history,
and today they remain a vital part of our economy and our communities. In California, they
make up a third of the workforce, and their work adds billions to the state’s gross
product.
In spite of their contributions, immigrants remain disproportionately represented in low-wage
industries like agriculture and domestic service, where they have little or no access to job
benefits or quality education, healthcare and housing. These workers’ attempts to organize
for better working conditions frequently face discrimination and the arbitrary enforcement
of immigration law, often leading to the collapse of organizing campaigns. Still, over the
past decade, janitors, hotel workers and day laborers have fought and won important battles
for better wages and working conditions. They have built solid unions and community organizations,
and together they have achieved what they couldn’t do alone.
Recognizing the important contributions of immigrant workers and need for policies that protect
the immigrant workforce from abuse, the U.S. labor movement recently advanced a new policy
platform on immigration. A landmark resolution by the AFL-CIO, passed in 2000, calls for a
broad legalization program for undocumented workers and an end to penalties for employing
undocumented workers (so-called “employer sanctions”).
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Facts:
According to the 2000 Census, there are over 30 million immigrants in the
U.S., representing 11% of the overall total population.
Michael Fix, Wendy Zimmerman, and
Jeffrey Passell, The Integration of Immigrant Families in the United States (Urban
Institute, July 2001).
Foreign-born Latinos make up 17% of California's total workforce. They constitute
36% of its service workers, 42% of its factory operatives, 49% of its laborers,
but only 5% of the state's professional and technical workers.
Leighton Ku and Shannon Blaney, Health Coverage for Legal Immigrant Children:
New Census Data Highlight Importance of Restoring Medicaid and SCHIP Coverage (Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, October 2000).
Almost 43% of immigrants work at jobs paying less than $7.50 an hour, compared
to 28 percent of all workers.
National Immigration Forum and the Cato Institute, A Fiscal Portrait
of the Newest Americans (1998).
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