Engaging Employers in Immigrant Integration

Immigrants make up an outsized share of America’s workforce compared to their share of population, and the country’s competitive advantage depends in part on how successfully employers integrate immigrant workers into the economy. Describing workplaces as “essential spaces for immigrant integration,” the author of this study, funded by the Ford Foundation, interviews key informants and scans the available literature to answer three main questions: 1) What do we know about employer engagement in immigrant integration? 2) How can we conceptualize this engagement? And, 3) what can employers do to promote integration?  Enchautegui observes that effective integration practices can benefit both the employer and the foreign-born worker, but these practices are not well known. Among the report’s recommendations are: offering workplace English-language training; equipping human resources staff with information on immigration policy and the value of foreign credentials; providing safety and occupational training in foreign language; offering naturalization assistance; and creating employee assistance programs geared specifically toward immigrants. The author hopes that the study will serve as a tool for “systematizing the knowledge about employer engagement in immigrant integration” and for cataloguing the many ways that employers can participate in this effort. Through such an effort, employers will boost worker productivity and company profitability, at the same time that they improve the skills and well-being of their immigrant workers. 

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