In Our Region: Non-Natives Receive More Employment (Arlington, Columbia: 2013, loans)

[justtitans]

Data: Regional unemployment rate lower among non-native-born - INSIDENOVA.COM: Arlington

The unemployment rate among foreign-born workers in the South Atlantic region of the U.S. – including Virginia – remained below that of native-born workers in 2013, according to new figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.


The regional unemployment rate for the year was 6.5 percent for those not born in the U.S. and 7.3 percent for those who were, down from 7.5 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively, in 2012.


Figures represent employment conditions in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia.

That sounds horrible. I understand we have a lot of people who move from other countries but I wonder if this is an indictment on this country's ability to properly prepare our workforce or is this a matter of catering to immigrants or maybe it's both. Thoughts?

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by justtitans

Data: Regional unemployment rate lower among non-native-born - INSIDENOVA.COM: Arlington



That sounds horrible. I understand we have a lot of people who move from other countries but I wonder if this is an indictment on this country's ability to properly prepare our workforce or is this a matter of catering to immigrants or maybe it's both. Thoughts?

Or perhaps less complacency among those who immigrate here and have firsthand experience with actual poverty. I also suspect that there are more native-born people who can afford to stay unemployed longer (via loans from family, savings, etc.) than immigrants who can do so.

I do believe the US educational system is overall not preparing students well; the skilled trades (which pay quite well) are in dire need of new blood, and a large chunk of recent college grads can barely write. But I don't think that's a factor in this study, because the reported wages for the native-born Americans were higher. (The same study in Silicon Valley might show the reverse, due to the foreign-born engineers and computer people.)

[South Jersey Styx]

OP, When I first read your post I immediately thought of three general fields which have managed to stay "buoyant" during these tough economic times which high a high % of foreign-born:

(1) IT/computer tech;
(2) medical; and
(3) science

I also think Carlingtonian has a point with foreign-born individuals who may have experienced poverty in their home countries and have not had things in a system to fall back on, like unemployment compensation, social services, etc.

[gomason]

Originally Posted by South Jersey Styx

OP, When I first read your post I immediately thought of three general fields which have managed to stay "buoyant" during these tough economic times which high a high % of foreign-born:

(1) IT/computer tech;
(2) medical; and
(3) science

I also think Carlingtonian has a point with foreign-born individuals who may have experienced poverty in their home countries and have not had things in a system to fall back on, like unemployment compensation, social services, etc.

This and the fact that the services sector of the economy has probably done the best through the slump along with Medical/Science/IT, which tend to be lower paying jobs employing immigrants.

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by justtitans

Data: Regional unemployment rate lower among non-native-born - INSIDENOVA.COM: Arlington



That sounds horrible. I understand we have a lot of people who move from other countries but I wonder if this is an indictment on this country's ability to properly prepare our workforce or is this a matter of catering to immigrants or maybe it's both. Thoughts?

I was born outside of this country. I've also lived in this country since I was 1. I am an american, yet by this study I'm not. Too often the idea of immigrants in this country is discussed on the basis of ILLEGAL immigration. News flash, some of us came here legally and are citizens of this country and by every measure of the word Americans. If anything, it might be the fact that immigrants come from terrible situations in many cases and when they get here they study their butts off (many indian, persian, and asian immigrants I know fit this pattern) so that they can have good jobs.

Perhaps it is a failure of initiative on some who aren't immigrants to realize that the world is a tough place, and you have to make your own way.

But regardless, understand that many of the immigrants of the 80s/90s era came as children during different times in immigration policies from south asian and middle eastern countries (not from central america) and those 1st gener's brought young children with them. Those young children like myself and many of my friends from school way back when, considered ourselves americans despite being born elsewhere. We didn't get brought up in a different educational system from your children, we just did better at it than they did 1) because of tiger mom syndrome 2) because in asia/middle east/many other areas of the world being an engineer, lawyer, dentist/doctor is a minimum requirement for any respect in a family. Its a matter of culture, society, and family.

[JWnova]

I think its basicly all numbers. I worked in the construction business for over 30 years in the metro DC area. About 20 or so years ago I was talking to one of my Latino co-workers and he said "wait and see, we will eventually take over". Meaning the construction business field labor force. I thought he was crazy. Well, seeing is believing. Just one small example. Its really very simple. Numbers.

[PK12]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

I was born outside of this country. I've also lived in this country since I was 1. I am an american, yet by this study I'm not. Too often the idea of immigrants in this country is discussed on the basis of ILLEGAL immigration. News flash, some of us came here legally and are citizens of this country and by every measure of the word Americans. If anything, it might be the fact that immigrants come from terrible situations in many cases and when they get here they study their butts off (many indian, persian, and asian immigrants I know fit this pattern) so that they can have good jobs.

Perhaps it is a failure of initiative on some who aren't immigrants to realize that the world is a tough place, and you have to make your own way.

But regardless, understand that many of the immigrants of the 80s/90s era came as children during different times in immigration policies from south asian and middle eastern countries (not from central america) and those 1st gener's brought young children with them. Those young children like myself and many of my friends from school way back when, considered ourselves americans despite being born elsewhere. We didn't get brought up in a different educational system from your children, we just did better at it than they did 1) because of tiger mom syndrome 2) because in asia/middle east/many other areas of the world being an engineer, lawyer, dentist/doctor is a minimum requirement for any respect in a family. Its a matter of culture, society, and family.

+1 Nailed it

[VRE332]

Originally Posted by PK12

+1 Nailed it

In China, it's about how much money, houses and cars you have, irregardless of what's your title.

[FabianS]

Originally Posted by South Jersey Styx

OP, When I first read your post I immediately thought of three general fields which have managed to stay "buoyant" during these tough economic times which high a high % of foreign-born:

(1) IT/computer tech;
(2) medical; and
(3) science

I also think Carlingtonian has a point with foreign-born individuals who may have experienced poverty in their home countries and have not had things in a system to fall back on, like unemployment compensation, social services, etc.

Medical/Tech Schools are also ridiculously cheap to attend in India/China/etc and you don't have to pay Indians/Chinese as much as American grads who are trying to pay their gigantic loans off.

It's all an enormous clusterf*ck that won't change until we hit the immigration pause button and force domestic schools to rework their system to better serve Americans and American businesses.

But that will never happen because that would be "racist".

[FabianS]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

I was born outside of this country. I've also lived in this country since I was 1. I am an american, yet by this study I'm not. Too often the idea of immigrants in this country is discussed on the basis of ILLEGAL immigration. News flash, some of us came here legally and are citizens of this country and by every measure of the word Americans. If anything, it might be the fact that immigrants come from terrible situations in many cases and when they get here they study their butts off (many indian, persian, and asian immigrants I know fit this pattern) so that they can have good jobs.

Perhaps it is a failure of initiative on some who aren't immigrants to realize that the world is a tough place, and you have to make your own way.

But regardless, understand that many of the immigrants of the 80s/90s era came as children during different times in immigration policies from south asian and middle eastern countries (not from central america) and those 1st gener's brought young children with them. Those young children like myself and many of my friends from school way back when, considered ourselves americans despite being born elsewhere. We didn't get brought up in a different educational system from your children, we just did better at it than they did 1) because of tiger mom syndrome 2) because in asia/middle east/many other areas of the world being an engineer, lawyer, dentist/doctor is a minimum requirement for any respect in a family. Its a matter of culture, society, and family.

This is all very true. With all the single mothers and high divorce rates these days American children barely have families at all let alone "respect" in said family to worry about.

But family values are sexist/homophobic, so at least we're cooler than you guys I guess...