Immigration and Construction: The Makeup of the Workforce in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135, Issue 9
Abstract
There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States. Of this population, research shows that approximately 19% work in the construction industry, comprising around 14% of all construction workforces. The Washington, D.C. metropolitan region has a unique makeup of workforces within the construction industry. Between September 2006 and February 2007, 896 construction workers from several projects in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area participated in a survey. The study targeted the low-skilled, immigrant-saturated trades in construction. The most compelling finding in this study was that illegal immigrants make up a far greater proportion of the construction workers in low-skilled trades than indicated by national averages, 55% as compared to between 20 and 36% nationally. This will increase the impact of immigration and immigration reform substantially for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135 • Issue 9 • September 2009
Pages: 874 - 880
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: May 17, 2008
Accepted: Feb 23, 2009
Published online: Apr 30, 2009
Published in print: Sep 2009
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