College-Educated Immigrants Underutilized

A new report shows more than 1.3 million college-educated immigrants living in the United States are unemployed or working in unskilled jobs such as dishwashers, security guards and taxi drivers.

About one in five in the U.S. labor force are highly skilled. However, they face many obstacles when trying to secure well-paying positions using their credentials and some never echieve employment commensurate to their qualifications, says Michael Fix, co-author of the study.

Well-educated and Latino and African immigrants are far worse off in the job market than are Europeans or Asians, concludes the Migration Policy Institute report.

Latinos have the highest unemployment rates of all foreighn-born groups. they are the least likely to be sponsored by employers or family members or through a government lottery program. Only 6% of them benefit from such sponsorship, compared to 16% of Europeans and 35% of Asians.