The Pew Research Center reported on higher educational attainment of graduates. It noted a steady moderate increase from 1970 through 2007, then a sharp increase. Native-born Americans are better educated than in 1970, but especially in recent years new immigrants have outpaced native-born Americans in education. Half of newly arrived immigrants in 1970 had at least a high school education; in 2013, more than three-quarters did. In 1970, a fifth had graduated from college; in 2013, 41% had done so. What is going on? #1 Rise in foreign college graduates Immigrants have been tilted to college graduates more than native-born … Continue reading Educational status of new immigrants has been sharply rising.

The American workforce has sucked up millions of workers from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.  I call this large area the basin for our workforce at lower levels of formal education. (Go here.) This table lists all the independent countries in the world with at least 15% of its population residing in the U.S. (Go here,) Let’s look at the larger countries in the American workforce basin (note El Salvador is in the first table):

Pew Research focuses on unauthorized workers, where they work. It highlights industry where their participation is very high (constrasting with education, where unauthorized workers are virtually non-existent). The figure for agriculture is misleading, in that immigrants, both legal and unauthorized, are concentrated in the produce sector. In California, they account for at least half of produce workers. In construction unauthorized workers tend to be laborers. In hospitality, non customer-facing jobs such as kitchen and housecleaning.