The United States has long been a place where families hoping for a better life could work to make those dreams a reality. As a direct result, their striving has benefited all of us, because immigration is not just a cornerstone of the American dream: it is also critical for sustaining economic growth. Newcomer contributions to the labor of care in this country are especially of note—from our children to our grandparents, from those with illnesses to those with disabilities, we can’t do without what these workers bring with them.
And yet, the new presidential administration seems bent on preventing these workers from coming to the United States, and on making life as precarious as possible for those who are already here. As we outline in this commentary, this policy agenda is a grave mistake. Read on to learn about the many ways that immigrants help keep our communities safe and healthy, and about the costs of losing them.
Immigrants Are a Boon and a Blessing across the U.S. Economy
First, it’s important to begin with the fact that newcomers are not just essential to the U.S. care economy: they’re essential in nearly every sector. Immigrants are integral members of our schools, our neighborhoods, our families, and our workforce, to the extent that nearly one in five workers (19 percent) in the United States are foreign-born. They are also extraordinarily productive and responsible community members: newcomers tend to have lower unemployment rates than native-born workers, and contribute significantly to federal, state, and local taxes, regardless of their citizenship status. They are also less likely than U.S.-born residents—by over 20 percent—to be dependent on welfare and benefits programs, and often work to support other recipients in these programs.
Immigration advocates have long warned of the threats that increasingly harsh immigration policies pose to our economy. U.S. birth rates have been falling for some time, presenting a major challenge for our economic future. Fewer workers to fill available jobs also means fewer taxpayers to support Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security (along with other social programs). Immigrants have bolstered the economy and American culture in irreplaceable ways.
The new Trump administration has rapidly enacted many significant changes to federal immigration policy, including increased enforcement activities in cities across the United States, the removal of temporary protected status and humanitarian parole for people from several countries, a pause on refugee resettlement, and the expansion of expedited removal. As discussed further below, these actions have created a pernicious culture of fear that will harm all communities and impact several sectors, resulting in worker shortages, a smaller labor market, and decreasing economic growth.
Immigrants Are Vital for the Health Care and Caregiving Sectors
Immigrants are vital members of communities across the country and are important contributors to the care economy, a web of critical sectors that provide for the health and well-being of all of us. Millions of people across the United States serve as caregivers, both paid and unpaid, providing support and services to young children, older adults, and people of all ages with disabilities. And many of these jobs are disproportionately filled by immigrant women in particular. In 2023, foreign-born women were nearly twice as likely to work in “service occupations”—a broad sector that includes health care support jobs and personal care and service jobs—than U.S.-born women. They are also more likely to be underpaid or unpaid.
Both immigrant workers with legal statuses and undocumented immigrants engage in essential caregiving work. This is particularly true in child care, where undocumented immigrants support low-income families by providing family, friend, and neighbor care. In a country where the average cost of care in a child care center is nearly $12,000 per year, lower-cost alternatives from a family, friend, or neighbor are the only way many families with low incomes can afford care for their children.
In child care, one in five workers are immigrants, as are 20 percent of nursing home workers, 15 percent of registered nurses, and 25 percent of doctors. These sectors are in a precarious state, and we need more workers, not less, engaging in this vital work.
Notably, these sectors, from health care to home care, child care, and disability personal care, all face serious workforce shortages. While the challenges within each sector and subsector vary (for example, undocumented immigrants are especially critical to the part of the care workforce that is most likely to be underpaid and overworked, such as home health care), immigrants are critical for meeting workforce needs. In child care, one in five workers are immigrants, as are 20 percent of nursing home workers, 15 percent of registered nurses, and 25 percent of doctors. These sectors are in a precarious state, and we need more workers, not less, engaging in this vital work. Critically, these estimates may be undercounting the number of immigrants working in these fields, as data collected often underrepresent undocumented immigrants.
Figure 1
Labor shortages in these sectors have tangible impacts on children and families. In health care, shortages pose a significant problem for patients who are seeking care. They result in longer wait times to see a provider and shorter visits when going to the hospital. One study found that a 10-percent reduction in registered nurses would result in higher odds of dying in the hospital or within thirty days of hospital discharge. Meanwhile, in child care, staffing shortages have led to classroom closures, leaving parents scrambling to find care for their children.
All together, shortages mean fewer people are able to get the care they need, when they need it. And shortages put more pressure on those that remain in their field, increasing rates of burnout and turnover, ultimately leading to higher overall costs for providers. Threats to immigrant workers will only further destabilize our workers’ lives and livelihoods, and exacerbate care worker shortages across the country.
Attacks on Immigrants Will Harm Workers, Children, and Families
Research has shown that immigration enforcement policies harm both U.S.-born workers and immigrant workers. Specifically, similarly draconian immigration enforcement policies in the past in the United States were found to reduce the wages and supply of child care workers. Studies have also found that increased immigration enforcement leads to lower enrollment of children in child care, reducing income for providers who are already operating on razor-thin margins. The new Trump administration policies will likely be harmful to the economy, our care workers, and, ultimately, damage the very foundation of this nation.
One of President Trump’s first executive orders was to attack the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. Now facing ten legal challenges (and counting), the policy would prevent children born in the United States without at least one citizen or legal permanent resident parent from automatically receiving American citizenship. If allowed to be implemented, this would put children born to undocumented parents or those with temporary visas, who are predominantly children of color, at risk of statelessness, not to mention directly violating our Constitution and demonstrating a shameful betrayal of our values as a nation.
Other executive orders aim to remove legal pathways and protections for refugees and asylees. President Trump has temporarily suspended refugee admissions, causing refugees from around the world to lose their already-approved ticket to safety in the United States, and organizations that provide wraparound support for newly resettled refugees have lost their federal funding. The Trump administration has shut down the Biden administration’s CBP One App, which, while far from a perfect solution, had previously decreased pressure at the U.S. southern border by allowing people to submit information ahead of time and create appointments at ports of entry to present their asylum cases. People who had appointments after January 20 saw their appointments cancelled indefinitely, after they had waited several months to argue for their right to asylum in unsafe conditions. And with the removal of both temporary protected status for Venezuelans and humanitarian parole status for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, nearly 2 million people are at risk of losing their legal status in the country.
In order to avoid potential run-ins with immigration enforcement, people may stay home from work or school, avoid grocery stores and community centers that enrich their lives, and it may even prevent them from receiving lifesaving medical support.
All together, these actions have inflicted significant fear on families and communities, particularly through mass deportation raids, the removal of protections in sensitive locations like schools, hospitals and churches, and the expansion of expedited removal—a policy that allows the government to automatically deport people whom they believe to be undocumented without the opportunity to fight their case in front of an immigration judge. These actions have already created havoc in immigrant communities, chilling economic and civic participation in the process. In order to avoid potential run-ins with immigration enforcement, people may stay home from work or school, avoid grocery stores and community centers that enrich their lives, and it may even prevent them from receiving lifesaving medical support. This hurts several industries, who depend on immigrant labor to adequately function. It hurts educators and child care providers, who have to work in an environment that is defined by fear, stress, and anxiety. Moreover, this hurts families, and it hurts whole communities.
Looking Ahead
Beginning on day one, the new Trump administration launched a mission to tear families apart and to prevent most immigrant-origin families from settling in the United States. Through denial of legal pathways to citizenship, the removal of humanitarian protections, the active criminalization of those already in the country, and efforts to prevent citizenship for future children born to them on U.S. soil, this administration threatens to destroy the American economy, American democracy, and American values. Simply put, there is no way to implement this administration’s vision for immigration without posing significant harms to the economy, and all communities suffer, not just those which include immigrant families.
Having a healthy and thriving society requires having a functioning immigration system where immigrants are welcome and supported. It requires incentivising, not penalizing, immigrants who wish to permanently relocate and contribute to their new American communities, especially when it comes to filling the glaring (and rapidly increasing) gaps within the care economy. We must change the narrative, and change direction: we have too much to lose.
Tags: immigration, Immigrant, care economy, economic oppurtunity
Attacks on Immigrant Workers Undermine the U.S. Care Economy
The United States has long been a place where families hoping for a better life could work to make those dreams a reality. As a direct result, their striving has benefited all of us, because immigration is not just a cornerstone of the American dream: it is also critical for sustaining economic growth. Newcomer contributions to the labor of care in this country are especially of note—from our children to our grandparents, from those with illnesses to those with disabilities, we can’t do without what these workers bring with them.
And yet, the new presidential administration seems bent on preventing these workers from coming to the United States, and on making life as precarious as possible for those who are already here. As we outline in this commentary, this policy agenda is a grave mistake. Read on to learn about the many ways that immigrants help keep our communities safe and healthy, and about the costs of losing them.
Immigrants Are a Boon and a Blessing across the U.S. Economy
First, it’s important to begin with the fact that newcomers are not just essential to the U.S. care economy: they’re essential in nearly every sector. Immigrants are integral members of our schools, our neighborhoods, our families, and our workforce, to the extent that nearly one in five workers (19 percent) in the United States are foreign-born. They are also extraordinarily productive and responsible community members: newcomers tend to have lower unemployment rates than native-born workers, and contribute significantly to federal, state, and local taxes, regardless of their citizenship status. They are also less likely than U.S.-born residents—by over 20 percent—to be dependent on welfare and benefits programs, and often work to support other recipients in these programs.
Immigration advocates have long warned of the threats that increasingly harsh immigration policies pose to our economy. U.S. birth rates have been falling for some time, presenting a major challenge for our economic future. Fewer workers to fill available jobs also means fewer taxpayers to support Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security (along with other social programs). Immigrants have bolstered the economy and American culture in irreplaceable ways.
The new Trump administration has rapidly enacted many significant changes to federal immigration policy, including increased enforcement activities in cities across the United States, the removal of temporary protected status and humanitarian parole for people from several countries, a pause on refugee resettlement, and the expansion of expedited removal. As discussed further below, these actions have created a pernicious culture of fear that will harm all communities and impact several sectors, resulting in worker shortages, a smaller labor market, and decreasing economic growth.
Immigrants Are Vital for the Health Care and Caregiving Sectors
Immigrants are vital members of communities across the country and are important contributors to the care economy, a web of critical sectors that provide for the health and well-being of all of us. Millions of people across the United States serve as caregivers, both paid and unpaid, providing support and services to young children, older adults, and people of all ages with disabilities. And many of these jobs are disproportionately filled by immigrant women in particular. In 2023, foreign-born women were nearly twice as likely to work in “service occupations”—a broad sector that includes health care support jobs and personal care and service jobs—than U.S.-born women. They are also more likely to be underpaid or unpaid.
Both immigrant workers with legal statuses and undocumented immigrants engage in essential caregiving work. This is particularly true in child care, where undocumented immigrants support low-income families by providing family, friend, and neighbor care. In a country where the average cost of care in a child care center is nearly $12,000 per year, lower-cost alternatives from a family, friend, or neighbor are the only way many families with low incomes can afford care for their children.
Notably, these sectors, from health care to home care, child care, and disability personal care, all face serious workforce shortages. While the challenges within each sector and subsector vary (for example, undocumented immigrants are especially critical to the part of the care workforce that is most likely to be underpaid and overworked, such as home health care), immigrants are critical for meeting workforce needs. In child care, one in five workers are immigrants, as are 20 percent of nursing home workers, 15 percent of registered nurses, and 25 percent of doctors. These sectors are in a precarious state, and we need more workers, not less, engaging in this vital work. Critically, these estimates may be undercounting the number of immigrants working in these fields, as data collected often underrepresent undocumented immigrants.
Figure 1
Labor shortages in these sectors have tangible impacts on children and families. In health care, shortages pose a significant problem for patients who are seeking care. They result in longer wait times to see a provider and shorter visits when going to the hospital. One study found that a 10-percent reduction in registered nurses would result in higher odds of dying in the hospital or within thirty days of hospital discharge. Meanwhile, in child care, staffing shortages have led to classroom closures, leaving parents scrambling to find care for their children.
All together, shortages mean fewer people are able to get the care they need, when they need it. And shortages put more pressure on those that remain in their field, increasing rates of burnout and turnover, ultimately leading to higher overall costs for providers. Threats to immigrant workers will only further destabilize our workers’ lives and livelihoods, and exacerbate care worker shortages across the country.
Attacks on Immigrants Will Harm Workers, Children, and Families
Research has shown that immigration enforcement policies harm both U.S.-born workers and immigrant workers. Specifically, similarly draconian immigration enforcement policies in the past in the United States were found to reduce the wages and supply of child care workers. Studies have also found that increased immigration enforcement leads to lower enrollment of children in child care, reducing income for providers who are already operating on razor-thin margins. The new Trump administration policies will likely be harmful to the economy, our care workers, and, ultimately, damage the very foundation of this nation.
One of President Trump’s first executive orders was to attack the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. Now facing ten legal challenges (and counting), the policy would prevent children born in the United States without at least one citizen or legal permanent resident parent from automatically receiving American citizenship. If allowed to be implemented, this would put children born to undocumented parents or those with temporary visas, who are predominantly children of color, at risk of statelessness, not to mention directly violating our Constitution and demonstrating a shameful betrayal of our values as a nation.
Other executive orders aim to remove legal pathways and protections for refugees and asylees. President Trump has temporarily suspended refugee admissions, causing refugees from around the world to lose their already-approved ticket to safety in the United States, and organizations that provide wraparound support for newly resettled refugees have lost their federal funding. The Trump administration has shut down the Biden administration’s CBP One App, which, while far from a perfect solution, had previously decreased pressure at the U.S. southern border by allowing people to submit information ahead of time and create appointments at ports of entry to present their asylum cases. People who had appointments after January 20 saw their appointments cancelled indefinitely, after they had waited several months to argue for their right to asylum in unsafe conditions. And with the removal of both temporary protected status for Venezuelans and humanitarian parole status for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, nearly 2 million people are at risk of losing their legal status in the country.
All together, these actions have inflicted significant fear on families and communities, particularly through mass deportation raids, the removal of protections in sensitive locations like schools, hospitals and churches, and the expansion of expedited removal—a policy that allows the government to automatically deport people whom they believe to be undocumented without the opportunity to fight their case in front of an immigration judge. These actions have already created havoc in immigrant communities, chilling economic and civic participation in the process. In order to avoid potential run-ins with immigration enforcement, people may stay home from work or school, avoid grocery stores and community centers that enrich their lives, and it may even prevent them from receiving lifesaving medical support. This hurts several industries, who depend on immigrant labor to adequately function. It hurts educators and child care providers, who have to work in an environment that is defined by fear, stress, and anxiety. Moreover, this hurts families, and it hurts whole communities.
Looking Ahead
Beginning on day one, the new Trump administration launched a mission to tear families apart and to prevent most immigrant-origin families from settling in the United States. Through denial of legal pathways to citizenship, the removal of humanitarian protections, the active criminalization of those already in the country, and efforts to prevent citizenship for future children born to them on U.S. soil, this administration threatens to destroy the American economy, American democracy, and American values. Simply put, there is no way to implement this administration’s vision for immigration without posing significant harms to the economy, and all communities suffer, not just those which include immigrant families.
Having a healthy and thriving society requires having a functioning immigration system where immigrants are welcome and supported. It requires incentivising, not penalizing, immigrants who wish to permanently relocate and contribute to their new American communities, especially when it comes to filling the glaring (and rapidly increasing) gaps within the care economy. We must change the narrative, and change direction: we have too much to lose.
Tags: immigration, Immigrant, care economy, economic oppurtunity