The most recent immigrants to the US are better educated and more likely than their predecessors to fill technical and professional jobs. This highlights the ways in which the demographics of foreign workers is changing in the 21st century and the possibility of a change in the political immigration landscape.
According to Jed Kolko, chief economist at the job site, Indeed, arrivals to the US in the last five years have gravitated to careers such as software developers, economists, medical scientists, and physical scientists – a conclusion reached by using data from the Census Bureau. This is a sharp contrast with previous immigrants who were more likely to work in blue-collar jobs, such as operating sewing machines or working on construction sites.
Kolko says that the changes in the nature of immigrants and where they live is likely to result in changes to the politics of immigration with the new Trump administration. The employers that are against imposing restrictions on new immigrants are more likely to come from research organizations and technical industries, meaning that blue-collar workers may feel less threatened by immigration than was the case in the past.
Donald Trump will be sworn in as the new President of the US today, having won the election in November, on a platform that involved pledging stronger opposition to illegal immigration and to construct a wall on the border between the US and Mexico.