Immigrant Workers: Vital to the U.S. COVID-19 Response, Disproportionately Vulnerable

This fact sheet highlights the great impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant workers in the U.S. Drawing on 2018 American Community Survey Data, the study estimates that 6 million foreign-born workers are employed in vital, frontline industries, at all levels of skill and education; another 6 million work in industries facing the sharpest economic and workforce contractions as a result of the pandemic. Many of these immigrant workers and their families, along with millions of other immigrants, also face the challenge of limited access to healthcare and safety-net services. Though immigrants are 17% of the U.S. workforce, in healthcare the foreign born represent 29% of doctors, 22% of nursing assistants, and 38% of home health aides. In manufacturing and food processing, some 26% of workers in food, medicine and cleaning supply manufacturing are foreign born, as are 50% of packers and packagers and 39% of “other” food processing workers. Some 27% of agricultural sector workers are immigrants, including 73% of hand packers, 62% of graders and sorters, and 48% of otherwise unclassified workers. The closure or contraction of so many “nonessential” businesses due to the pandemic has also brought hardships to industries where immigrants represent a substantial share of workers, including accommodation and food services (52% of cleaners, 38% of chefs, and 30 percent of cooks), personal services (30% of workers, including 63% of maids and housekeepers and 52% of laundry services workers), and building services (38% of workers, including 59% of maids and housekeepers and 41% of janitors). Alongside these challenges, many immigrants and their families face heightened vulnerability due to low incomes, lack of health insurance coverage, and limited English proficiency. Many noncitizen workers—which includes more than half of those in the hardest hit industries—lack access to federal safety net programs such as Medicaid, TANF, and SNAP. Unauthorized immigrants or those who file taxes jointly with them are also ineligible for cash relief from the CARES act. The need to prevent illness and viral transmission for all residents during pandemic, the fact sheet concludes, presents serious questions about restricting access to safety-net programs for vulnerable immigrants and their families, including not just unauthorized immigrants but millions of their U.S citizen or permanent resident spouses and children. (Jeffrey Gross, Ph.D.)

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