Latinx Migrant Workers in United States Today: A Quantitative Report on the Latinx Migrant Experience and the Impact of American Immigration Policy on Their Work and Wealth

Abstract

The field of Latinx studies grows every day as more Latinx immigrants arrive in the US. Current knowledge on immigration describes a harrowing path towards citizenship as immigrants disproportionately face discrimination in American society and politics and are funneled into a periphery labor market with poor conditions and little to no opportunity for growth. This study begins with a recount of these stories and goes further to compare and understand the migrant experience for both documented and undocumented workers. The migrant experience is analyzed by looking at significant life variables such as health, relationships, access to state assistance, and work and wealth. Conventional wisdom suggests that undocumented workers are worse off, but this study finds through correlational analyses and multi-logit regressions from data collected by the Mexican Migration Project that documented workers are not always doing much better. This study concludes with a discussion on the findings, study limitations, and potential implications for American immigration policy.