Business and the Workforce

What role do immigrants play in American business and the American workforce? Immigrants work in a range of skilled positions in the U.S. and start businesses that boost the American economy. Learn more about immigrant entrepreneurship and workforce participation.

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  • Fact Sheet

Rebuilding Local Economies

Publication Date: 
May 13, 2013
Innovation, Skilled Immigration, and H-1B Visas in U.S. Metropolitan Areas Although immigration policy is debated at the national level, its impact is most often felt in local and regional...
  • Fact Sheet

A Bipartisan Bridge to Prosperity: High-Skilled Immigration Legislation in the 113th Congress

Publication Date: 
March 1, 2013
In the spirit of bipartisan immigration reform, a geographically diverse contingent from both chambers of Congress have introduced legislation to strengthen high-skilled immigration and spur economic...
  • Special Report

The Politics of Skill: Rethinking the Value of "Low-Skilled" Immigrant Workers

Publication Date: 
March 15, 2012
The political discourse surrounding the incorporation of immigrants into the U.S. labor market tends to sort immigrant workers into two broad and mutually exclusive categories: high-skilled workers...
  • Fact Sheet

Always in Demand: The Economic Contributions of Immigrant Scientists and Engineers

Publication Date: 
March 4, 2012
With the U.S. economy in the midst of a prolonged slump, it’s hard to believe that any industry would actually benefit from having more workers. But that is precisely the case when it comes to those...
  • Special Report

Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Creating Jobs and Strengthening the Economy

Publication Date: 
January 25, 2012
There is widespread agreement across a number of key economic planning groups that immigrant entrepreneurs create jobs and strengthen the economy. Yet, the U.S. immigration system often forces out...
  • Special Report

Our American Immigrant Entrepreneurs: The Women

Publication Date: 
December 8, 2011
When Americans picture an immigrant entrepreneur, they likely imagine a man who began the migration of his family, later bringing his wife over to become a volunteer assistant in the shop. This image...
  • Fact Sheet

The U.S. Economy Still Needs Highly Skilled Foreign Workers

Publication Date: 
March 30, 2011
It might seem that persistently high unemployment rates over the past few years have rendered moot the debate over whether or not the United States really “needs” the highly skilled foreign workers...
  • Special Report

Why Immigrants Can Drive the Green Economy

Publication Date: 
June 23, 2010
The 2000 Census found that immigrants, while accounting for 12 percent of the population, made up nearly half of the all scientists and engineers with doctorate degrees. Nearly 70 percent of the men...
  • Research and Analysis

A Conversation about the Economic Effects of Immigration on African Americans

Publication Date: 
July 14, 2009
Anti-immigrant groups have repeatedly tried to drive a wedge between African Americans and immigrants by capitalizing on the myth that immigrants take American jobs. In a new Perspectives piece for...
  • Fact Sheet

Facts about Farmworkers

Publication Date: 
May 13, 2009
AgJOBS is a bipartisan, compromise bill that is the result of years of negotiations among farmworkers, growers, and Members of Congress. Get the facts on Farmworkers.
  • Blog

Another Trump Barrier Broken as DHS Withdraws Two Proposed Rules for Limiting Access to Legal Immigration

May 12, 2021

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently withdrew two rules proposed by the Trump administration. On the surface, it seems they have nothing in common: a proposed expansion in collecting...

  • Blog

Ban on J-1 Exchange and Other Employment-Based Visas Set to Expire

March 30, 2021

A ban blocking certain employment-based visas implemented and extended by former President Trump is set to expire on March 31. The ban has likely prevented hundreds of thousands of people from...

  • Blog

USCIS Begins to Reverse Course on H-1B Petitions

March 19, 2021

Employers and workers are starting to see a shift from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on unlawful restrictions of the H-1B specialty occupation visa category. Over the past nine...

  • Blog

The Biden Administration Is Already Supporting Employment-Based Immigration, But Uncertainty Remains

February 5, 2021

Business immigration has already benefited from the change in administrations. On January 25, President Biden issued an executive order directly replacing a Trump-era executive order that wreaked...

  • Blog

What You Need to Know About the Latest Changes to the H-1B Registration Process

January 14, 2021

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently issued a final rule changing the way U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) selects the registrations of U.S. employers that want to...

  • Blog

The United States Needs a New Approach to Visas and Immigration Benefits

January 8, 2021

This article is part of the Moving Forward on Immigration series that explores the future of immigration in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.  The Biden administration faces a...

  • Blog

Your COVID-19 Vaccine Was Likely Made by an Immigrant

December 14, 2020

The development of a COVID-19 vaccine is a global endeavor. The scientists and entrepreneurs creating the vaccine are of many nationalities and immigration statuses—as are the millions of people...

  • Blog

District Court Stops Regulations Restricting the H-1B Visa Category

December 2, 2020

On December 1, a federal district court judge disrupted the Trump administration’s relentless attack on legal immigration by halting two new sets of regulations. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and...

  • Blog

USCIS Is Proposing an H-1B Rule That Ignores Why the Category Exists

November 13, 2020

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently issued a proposed rule that will change the way it selects the registrations of U.S. employers that want to file H-1B petitions subject...

  • Blog

Three New Lawsuits Challenge Trump’s H-1B Worker Restrictions

October 23, 2020

Three new lawsuits have been filed challenging the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new rules impacting the H-1B visa category, with one also challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new...

  • Research and Analysis

Coalition Urges Department of Labor to Update Schedule A Occupation List to Meet Current Labor Market Needs

Publication Date: 
June 28, 2023
The American Immigration Council joined a coalition letter to encourage the Department of Labor (DOL) to annually update its Schedule A Group I occupation list to better reflect the conditions facing...
Cover of Refugee Report
  • Special Report

Starting Anew

Publication Date: 
June 20, 2023
A record 100 million people around the globe were forced to flee their homes in 2022, up from 65 million in 2015. Of those displaced last year, 32.5 million were refugees who had to leave their...
  • Special Report

The Growing Demand for Healthcare Workers

Publication Date: 
April 18, 2023
A new research series from the American Immigration Council, The Growing Demand for Healthcare Workers, highlights the crucial role immigrants are playing to help address critical workforce shortages...
  • Fact Sheet

The Growing Demand for Physicians in Nevada

Publication Date: 
March 9, 2023
This research brief highlights the crucial role immigrants in Nevada are playing to help address critical physician shortages.
  • Fact Sheet

The Economic Benefits of the Empire State Licensing Act

Publication Date: 
February 16, 2023

New research from the American Immigration Council, Economic Benefits of the Empire State Licensing: Immigrants in New York State’s Workforce, highlights the crucial role of immigrants and...

  • Press Release

New Research Shows Immigrants Account for Nearly 13 Percent of Utah Physicians as Demand for Bilingual Workers Jumps 38.8 Percent

February 7, 2023
The American Immigration Council released new research, The Growing Demand for Healthcare Workers in Utah, which underscores the crucial role immigrants play in some of the state’s fastest growing and most in demand healthcare fields.
  • Press Release

New Research Shows the Key Role Immigrants Play in 13 States’ Healthcare Workforces

February 3, 2023
The American Immigration Council reports underscore the key role of immigrant healthcare workforces of Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
  • Blog

Amid a Severe Shortage of Home Health Aides, Immigrants Help Care for Our Seniors

January 26, 2023

The United States will need to fill nearly three-quarters of a million open jobs for home health and personal care aides every year through 2031. Currently, immigrant workers fill these jobs in...

  • Blog

Immigrant Workers Who Report Labor Violations Will Be Protected Under This New Policy

January 19, 2023

Immigrant workers who are the victims of labor exploitation are often faced with a difficult choice. They can either stay quiet out of fear of deportation or come forward to report coercive...

  • Practice Advisories

Practice Tip: Opposing a Motion to Dismiss Asserting the Consular Nonreviewability Doctrine in Agency Delay Cases

Publication Date: 
December 16, 2022
Practitioners who challenge delays in visa processing often face a motion to dismiss based on the consular nonreviewability doctrine. This practice tip examines the scope of the doctrine. It provides arguments, with supporting documentation, to oppose common situations that the government claims are final, nonreviewable decisions.

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