The face of immigration is changing in America. Labor economists Borjas and Katz argue that immigration between nineteen eighty and two thousand had its largest and most negative economic impacts on high school dropouts in the U.S. because many of the immigrants during that period were themselves predominantly high school dropouts.
In other words, the immigrants of that two decade era were on average not particularly educated, tended to be employed in low-wage positions, thereby increasing competition among those Americans who had been holding those positions. The story is much different today. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of the year two thousand, sixty one percent of the total stock of foreign born U.S. residents over the age of twenty five possessed a high school degree or less.
But by twenty thirteen, only forty one percent of new immigrants coming into the country had a high school degree or less. In short, as indicated by Moody’s Analytics, immigrants have grown more educated over time and today are more likely than the existing U.S. population to possess more than a high school education. The share of immigrants coming from Asia has also been on the rise.
