We know that since the Great Recession, most immigrants are at least as likely to be employed as the average American native.
Conditional on being employed, immigrants are also more likely to work full time (30 hours or more per week) than employed natives, with the exception of high-income non-OECD country immigrants in the post-recession years, as well as Chinese immigrants in the last few years of the data.
Even if we account for the immigrant – native differences in education, occupations, geographic locations, and other reasons that explain the pay gap, we still see all immigrant groups except for those from high-income OECD countries earning less than comparable natives.
So then, are immigrants from low-income countries poorly educated and not succeeding in the U.S. labor market? Perhaps surprisingly, origin country income and the average education level of the immigrant group are not as highly correlated as one might think.
While immigrants seem to find employment, most of them are not earning wages as high as the average American.
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