The Limits of Immigrant Resilience

Authors

Huyen Pham, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow
Natalie C. Cook
Ernesto Amaral
Raymond Robertson
Suojin Wang

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2024

Journal Title

Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal

ISSN

1077-0704

Abstract

Economists have identified important adaptations that immigrant workers have made to weather economic crises. During times of economic contraction, immigrant workers have moved across industries or geographical locations, downshifted to part-time work, and accepted lower wages to stay employed. Evidence from the Great Recession (2007–2009) shows the benefits of that economic resilience: immigrant workers were more likely than native-born workers to remain continuously employed, to have shorter periods of unemployment when they lost their jobs, and to regain jobs more quickly in the recovery period. Of course, these adaptations had significant personal costs for immigrant workers and their families, but in times of increased job competition, their resilience enabled them to keep jobs and crucial sources of income and had important, positive spillover effects for native-born workers.

Our research, however, shows important limits to that immigrant resilience. In our analysis of Current Population Survey (“CPS”) data during COVID-19, immigrant workers had worse employment outcomes than native-born workers. Looking at the restaurant industry as a case study, we found that immigrant workers were more likely to lose their jobs, keep only low-paying jobs within restaurants, or drop out of the labor market entirely, as compared to native-born workers. The sharply contrasting experiences of immigrant workers during these two crises can be explained by the nearly simultaneous and complete shutdowns that states imposed across the country during the pandemic. These shutdowns undercut any mobility and flexibility advantages that immigrant workers might otherwise have had and threatened immigrants’ already precarious economic positions. As we look to the real possibility of future pandemics, these limits on immigrant resilience counsel for increasing immigrant access to aid programs at both the federal and state levels to benefit both immigrant workers and the larger economy that relies heavily on immigrant productivity.

First Page

509

Last Page

546

Num Pages

38

Volume Number

33

Issue Number

3

Publisher

Gould School of Law University of Southern California

Recommended Citation

Huyen Pham, Natalie C. Cook, Ernesto Amaral, Raymond Robertson & Suojin Wang, The Limits of Immigrant Resilience, 33 S. Cal. Interdisc. L.J. 509 (2024).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/2118

File Type

PDF