Low-skilled immigrants and the changing American labor market

Low-skilled immigrants are an integral part of the US labor market: almost 30 percent of US workers without a high school diploma are immigrants. If current trends persist, immigrants will become the majority of US low-skilled workers in the near future. While low-skilled immigrants maintain strong employment levels, they are concentrated in the most menial law-skilled jabs, and their wages are declining relative to those of natives. The substantial deterioration of the economic status of low-skilled immigrants in the last decade raises important policy questions concerning ways to address the plight of this growing segment of US workers.