Immigrant labor force booming
Mass. report foresees a skill gap
The immigrant population in Massachusetts, already at a 50-year high at the end of the last century, has swelled since then and the expansion shows no sign of slowing, according to a report set for release today.
The rise in the state's foreign-born population has continued, despite the slowing of the state's economy since 2000 and tightened entry requirements for foreigners after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The report, produced by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, a nonpartisan think tank, along with the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, warns of serious challenges as the immigrants -- many of them with poor English ability and low skill levels -- seek to thrive in the state's increasingly complex job market.
''We are seeing a new immigration boom and this research shows that strong English language skills are critical to earning a middle-class wage and participating fully in the civic life of our Commonwealth," said Ian Bowles, MassINC president and chief executive. ''English language skills are fundamental to living the American dream in Massachusetts."
Although the growth of the state's foreign-born population was well established after the 2000 Census, the new report provides a comprehensive picture of the origins, destinations, education levels, and English skills of immigrants in Massachusetts, and the dramatic demographic change brought by their arrival.
Among its findings:
Today, 1 in 7 Massachusetts residents was born in another country. In Boston, that number is 1 in 4. In Chelsea, where the concentration of immigrants is highest, 1 in 3 residents is foreign born.
The foreign-born share of the labor force has doubled since 1980, to 17 percent.
Between 2000 and 2003, Brazil sent the most immigrants to Massachusetts; 1 out of 5 new arrivals was from that country.
Immigrants are clustered in the state's cities.
More than one-third of all adult immigrants in Massachusetts either lack a high school diploma or have poor English skills.
The study suggests that, even as immigrants continue to make Massachusetts their home, the gap between their skills and those required by the state's economy is widening. From 1980 to 2000, the number of immigrants with limited English-speaking skills increased from 17.5 percent of the foreign-born population to 21.5 percent. At the same time, the Massachusetts economy is less in need of low-skilled workers, with many factory jobs replaced by positions that require advanced reading, math, and analytical skills. According to the report, a third of recent adult immigrants lack those skills. When added to new immigrants' language and education deficits, the researchers estimate that 71 percent of adult immigrants are inadequately prepared for the new economy.
''Over the last couple of decades, a lot of the jobs that used to be bridges to the middle class have taken a pounding in this state," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, one of the paper's authors. ''At GE or Gillette or Polaroid, you'd get a production job and it would pay well enough to give you a middle-class standard of living."
The immigrants' limited skills have financial consequences: The study found that immigrants whose primary language is English earn 2 1/2 times more than those who do not speak English well. Without English, the study contends, immigrants will continue to have low-skill, low-wage occupations. That makes them more likely to be poor and unable to buy homes, and to lack health coverage and pensions. Poor English skills also make it less likely that immigrants will become citizens, distancing them from the political process.
''This is the group less likely to become citizens and become civically involved, and if you're not part of the civic structure, you're marginalized," Sum said. ''You are a stranger in a strange land."
While immigrant groups are bringing new life to cities, they are also taxing urban centers, Sum said, because they tend to be more in need of services such as healthcare and English classes.
The report is based on decennial US census data, supplemented by monthly population surveys conducted by the Census Bureau since 2000. Though the data extend only to 2004, the researchers say the trends they show are continuing.
Researchers counted Puerto Ricans and those born in other US territories as immigrants because their primary language is not English, and because their experience here mirrors that of those born in foreign countries.
Massachusetts now has more immigrants as a percentage of population, 14 percent, than it has had since the 1950s.
The immigrant share of the state's labor force has swelled more rapidly. About 178,000 immigrants arrived in Massachusetts workplaces between 1990 and 2000, said Sum. But in the last 4 1/2 years alone, some 100,000 immigrants have taken jobs here.
Without those immigrants, the state's population, and its labor force, would have shrunk, the researchers said. Illegal immigrants account for some of the surge, according to the report. Of the 907,000 foreign-born residents of Massachusetts, an estimated 175,000 are undocumented.
The countries that send most immigrants to the state differ greatly from those that sent them before 1980. Back then, more than half of the immigrants in Massachusetts were from Europe. By 2000, Europeans were just over a quarter of the immigrant population. Over those two decades, the share of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean rose from 9 percent to 26 percent, and those from Asia rose from 9 percent to 23 percent. The trend has intensified in recent years. Between 2000 and 2004, 47.3 percent of new immigrants to Massachusetts were from Latin America and the Caribbean, 23.1 percent were from Asia, and 20.1 percent were from Europe.
The influence of some groups has been felt strongly in some municipalities, from the Vietnamese nail salons at Dorchester's Fields Corner to the Cambodian eateries in Lowell's Lower Highlands. In Framingham, Brazilians make up more than a third of the immigrant population. In Boston, Haitians constitute 10 percent of the city's immigrant population. Indians make up 10 percent of Marlborough's immigrants.
The concentration of immigrants in urban centers, Sum said, has also taxed cities, however, because recent immigrants are 3 1/2 times more likely to lack health insurance than native-born residents, and more likely to need extra help in public schools.
The shift from Europe to Latin America and the Caribbean as the primary source of immigrants to Massachusetts has led to an overall decline in English-speaking ability among the state's foreign born. In 1980, 65 percent of immigrants spoke a language other than English at home. By 2000, that number had jumped to 79 percent. English skills varied widely according to where immigrants were born. In 2000, half of new immigrant workers from Central America either did not speak English well, or did not speak English at all. For workers from South America, it was 42 percent, and the Caribbean, 32 percent. By contrast, only 19 percent of immigrant workers from Asia and 14 percent from Europe had limited English skills.
The researchers call the ability to speak English a ''fault line" between economic success and poverty. In 1999, an immigrant who spoke only English earned an average wage of $38,526, while an immigrant who did not speak English well earned $14,221 on average. When the researchers controlled for other factors, immigrants with limited English skills still earned 28 percent less on average than those who only spoke English.
''Not knowing English prevents you from being a full participant in this city," said the Rev. Cheng Imm Tan, director of the Office of New Bostonians. ''Without it, it is very hard to access health services, to help your kids in school, to get a better job, to even apply for a job. All of these things are very difficult if you can't speak the 'lingua franca' of the city."
As with English ability, education levels vary widely depending on the immigrants' country of origin. In 2000, more than 60 percent of new immigrant workers from Central America lacked a high school diploma, but only 15 percent of those from Asia lacked one. Addressing such imbalances has to be a state priority, said Ian Bowles, of MassINC. ''Our state can ill afford to lose individuals from the workforce," he said. ''Immigrants are a godsend for our economy. Enhancing their English skills will lead to greater participation in the Commonwealth." 