Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees - GCIR

During the 1990s, one out of every two new workers was an immigrant. While many immigrants speak English well and enter the United States with strong academic credentials and skills, many others do not. Like other low-skilled workers, few of these immigrants enjoyed the benefits of employer-provided training programs, most of which are geared to managers or highly skilled workers. Low-wage immigrant workers have also been outside the reach of government-sponsored job training programs that concentrate on getting welfare recipients into the labor market and have often underserved persons with limited English skills. The report looks at the reauthorization of the 1998 Workforce Investment Act (WIA)—the largest source of federal funding for job training, adult basic education, and English as a second language (ESL) instruction—sheds light on the need for policies that move in these directions.

Documents critical hazards to worker health and safety in the U.S. meat and poultry industry, which increasingly relies on immigrant workers. Explains how government failure to regulate the industry violates international human rights and labor standards protections; recommends ways that federal and state governments and meat and poultry companies can improve conditions and comply with international standards.

On September 17, 1997, the Unpaid Wages Prohibition Act was signed, giving New York State the strongest wage enforcement law in the country. The campaign that won the Act was conceived of and led by immigrant workers and members of the Workplace Project, a nonprofit workers center in Long Island. It was supported by a broad coalition of business, labor, religious, and community groups, as well as two other workers centers, the Latino Workers Center and the Chinese Staff and Workers Association. Jennifer Gordon describes the campaign's origins and strategy, explores lessons that were learned and that may be useful to other groups seeking to carry out similar efforts, and suggests ways that the campaign could be used as the basis for a model of active citizenship education.

Rapid increases in the foreign-born population at the state level are not associated with negative effects on the employment of native-born workers, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center that examines data during the boom years of the 1990s and the downturn and recovery since 2000. An analysis of the relationship between growth in the foreign-born population and the employment outcomes of native-born workers revealed wide variations and no consistent pattern across the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

This report recognizes many immigrant workers "toil in high-risk occupations, work in the unregulated 'informal' economy and often fear reporting workplace injuries. Many are not aware of their legal rights to safety and health on the job and to workers' compensation if they are injured. The report examines several successful outreach attempts by unions and community groups to educate immigrant workers on worksite hazards and about their legal rights on the job. It looks at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) actions and areas in which OSHA can improve their efforts.

This exploratory initiative on the integration of immigrants is an effort to help human resource professionals, community activists, educators, labor activists, and professionals in the public workforce system seek and develop solutions to real-life challenges of integrating immigrants in the workplace. The authors' primary objective was to illuminate policies, practices, and processes that lead to the successful integration of immigrant workers. They note that integration is not in itself an achievable endpoint, but an organic, highly local, two-way process engaging all key factors in a community. Therefore, they suggest, it needs to be monitored and adjusted constantly to meet the needs of all stakeholders.

More than eight million working-age adults in the United States—5 percent of all adults—speak English poorly or do not speak it at all. Immigrant populations, many of them limited English proficient, are going to be essential for the growth of the U.S. workforce in the years to come. This study recommends improving the resources for language and job training available to LEP populations. It Ddescribes the demographics and economic circumstances of low-income LEP adults; profiles successful language and job training services available to them, including a summary of research findings on employment programs for low-skilled adults; and recommends policies and practices that can help LEP adults gain access to higher-paying jobs.

Shows how state laws and agency actions can advance the labor rights of immigrant workers; profiles selected local campaigns. Describes improved policies for language access, government benefits and services, confidentiality provisions, access to drivers' licenses, rights and remedies under labor and employment law, and access to workers' compensation.

The report’s findings reveal that the day-labor market is rife with violations of workers’ rights. Day laborers are regularly denied payment for their work, many are subjected to demonstrably hazardous job sites, and most endure insults and abuses by employers. The vast majority of laborers are immigrants and Latino, 28 percent are U.S. citizens, 75 percent are undocumented, and almost two-thirds of the workers have children. The authors assert that the growth of day-labor hiring sites combined with rising levels of workers’ rights violations is a national trend that warrants attention from policymakers at all levels of government. Policy recommendations include ways to support worker centers, improve enforcement of labor and employment laws, expand workforce development opportunities, and enact realistic immigration reform.