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Washington, D.C. (October 30, 2019) - A new Center for Immigration Studies report examines Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuits and finds a high frequency of job discrimination against American workers in the low-wage labor market.
Jason Richwine, an independent policy analyst and the author of the report, selected 21 real-world cases that illustrate the negative effects of immigration on native workers. From Colorado to Georgia, from Illinois to Oklahoma and North Carolina, the author exposes a bias toward immigrant workers, impacting job availability and wages for Americans, particularly black Americans.
The discriminatory actions described in the EEOC lawsuits include: requiring background checks of non-Hispanic American applicants but not the foreign-born Hispanic applicants; employing recruitment techniques designed to keep black Americans from hearing about job openings; falsely telling native-born workers that there are no job openings; enforcing different production standards depending on national origin; establishing phony employment lines and sign-up sheets; and requiring Spanish-language skills even when they are not necessary for the job.
Richwine comments, "The consistency and extent of these EEOC lawsuits paint a disturbing picture of U.S. companies appearing to prefer low-skill foreign-born workers over their native-born counterparts, particularly blacks. The discrimination against U.S.-born workers is neither subconscious nor subtle.”
The panel discussion where the report was released included Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who said that the Center’s report comports with his experience as a labor employment lawyer over the last 40 years and with the findings of the Civil Rights Commission on the effects of illegal immigration on black workers. Kevin Lynn, executive director of Progressives for Immigration Reform, emphasized that employer discrimination impacts workers at the high end of the labor market as well, particularly in areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
The report, plus the video and transcript of the panel discussion, are available at: https://cis.org/Report/EEOC-lawsuits-native-immigrant
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