The Most Common Jobs Held By Immigrants, State By State

Immigration is a hot topic all over the country right now for various reasons. One of the main topics of articles or discussions I have seen has to do with immigrants and jobs in America. Have you ever wondered what the most common jobs immigrants actually have?

Well, you’re in luck because Business Insider used information that was assembled by the Minnesota Population Center’s IPMS program to create a map that shows you exactly that. The information was cultivated by using the answers of two questions on the 2013 US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The question asking where respondents were born, and the question asking which occupation the respondent had.

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Many years ago as I was traveling up a mountain to have dinner with a friend and was shocked to see people living in the dense forest. Laundry was hanging from branches in the heavy wet air filled with mosquitoes and I was in tears by the time I arrived, asking my friend to go get them so that we could share the food. Minutes later their children were ushered to the table, then the men, and finally the women. My heart broke as we hadn’t much to serve and the women literally ate scraps. They spoke spanish so it was challenging to communicate. After eating, we gave the children icecream sandwiches and their eyes lit up like sparklers. The men through signing, asked to use the car to go back to the forest so that they could gift us something, and my friend handed them the keys. About 1/2 an hour later, they returned with their instruments to play music so that we could all dance. Even with broken strings, Ive never heard music that brought so many tears to my eyes…we all danced and laughed, hugged and felt so grateful. The rains in Maine were heavy that summer and blueberries rotted by the time field workers got up north. Although promised housing and work before heading to the next crop, the farmers declined them a place to stay and the forest became their home. Still worried about them, I imagined how Id fit them in my tiny home and set out to get them. All the way down my mountain and up another I ran through my head how I was going to communicate with them…coax them to come…finally up one more short dirt grade and I was there…but they had vanished. I felt devastated that they had gone…where, I would never know. I remember crying in my car thinking, “do they know someone cares about them…are they safe?” I never got to thank them…just one more time. Now, more than ever, perhaps you could slow down when eating & take pause to thank those who picked the food before you. More often than not, they are treated as disposable. They are not machines, they are people who we don’t honor and respect enough. #migrantworkers #handpicked #hardlabor #pray #givethanks #manyhandsmakelightwork #goodwork #thankthem #saythanks

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The majority of jobs shown on the map are janitors, housekeepers, and agriculture workers. These jobs are thought to be majorly ruled by non-native people, but the Center for Immigration Studies surprisingly shows us that these fields are dominated by native-born people.

• Maids and housekeepers: 51% native-born
• Taxi drivers and chauffeurs: 58% native-born
• Grounds maintenance workers: 64% native-born
• Construction laborers: 66% native-born
• Janitors: 73% native-born

For more info or to dig deeper into the data go here, here, here, and here.

Featured Image via TableTalkAtLarry’s