Nigerians in United States (U.S) attain the 19th position as nationality with the most foreign born workers, with 330,000 in the U.S workforce. This data is sourced from CPS basic data from IPUMS CPS (Integrated public use microdata series for the current population survey) based on January to December 2023 figures.

The CPS Is a monthly survey of US households conducted by the US census bureau and the bureau of labor statistics. The highest is Mexico with 7.79 million, followed by India with 2.39 million and China with 1.27 million.

The nationalities represented in the U.S workforce are:

· Philippines 1.23 million

· El Savador 1.01 million

· Guatemala 950,000

· Cuba 940,000

· Vietnam 830,000

· Dominican Republic 790,000

· Honduras 700,000

· Colombian 670,000

· Jamaica 600,000

· Venezuela 560,000

· Brazil 550,000

· Haiti 520,000

· Canada 390,000

· Ecuador 390,000

· Peru 350,000

· South Korea 280,000

Here is the breakdown by continent, ranked by the number of nationalities represented:

· Central America (6): Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras

· South America (4): Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru

· Asia (4): India, China, Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea

· Caribbean (3): Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba

· Africa (1): Nigeria

· North America (non-Latin) (1): Canada

North America (including Latin American countries) has the highest number of nationalities, followed by South America and Asia. The Caribbean has three, while Africa and non-Latin North America have one each.

1-in-5 employees in the U.S are foreign-born

Foreign-born workers make up a significant portion of the United States labour force, accounting for 20 per cent of all workers. This means that one in five workers across the country was born outside the U.S.

Moreover, immigrants play a crucial role in several key industries, representing at least 25 per cent of the workforce in four major occupational groups.

Range of occupations

· Building/grounds cleaning/maintenance (39.8 percent)

· Farming/forestry (38.5 percent)

· Construction/extraction (34.3 percent)

· Computer/mathematical (26.7 percent)

Justin Ladner, a labour economist at SHRM, highlights that while certain job characteristics such as manual labour appear to be linked to foreign-born workers, immigrants are well represented across highly skilled occupations requiring different skill levels.

“For example, the representation of foreign-born workers is just under 24 percent in production, food preparation/serving, and health care support, even though these groups differ markedly from one another in a wide variety of ways,” he said.

Although foreign-born workers are particularly prevalent in industries that rely heavily on manual or routine labour, they make up at least 10 per cent of the workforce in every major sector, according to Ladner.

Paradoxically, immigrants are also more likely to hold a graduate or professional degree. In other words, compared to their native-born counterparts in the U.S., foreign-born workers are disproportionately represented at both ends of the educational spectrum.

“There are the types of occupations we associate with immigrant labor — jobs with a high emphasis on manual labor and few educational barriers to enter into,” Ladner said.

“However, it is also true that foreign-born workers are attaining high levels of education and working in technology, mathematics, and the sciences. Big tech companies hire these workers, and universities bring them in as researchers, professors, and scientists. It shows that the motives to come to the U.S. for work are varied, and the set of people involved are similarly diverse.”

“It is well known that certain states, industries, and occupational groups are particularly reliant on the labor supplied by foreign-born migrants; however, the more compelling finding may be the fact that there are very few parts of the U.S. workforce in which foreign-born people do not make substantial contributions,” he said.

In analysing data from the U.S. government’s current population survey and American community survey, he asserts that foreign-born workers will continue to increase.

“Given rapid aging in the domestic population and a persistent labor shortage that predates the pandemic, it seems likely that the contributions of foreign-born workers will only grow as U.S. employers cast an increasingly wide net to find the skilled workers they need to be competitive in the global economy,” Ladner said. (BusinessDay)