Divers-City
An analysis of immigrant life in Houston, Texas and it's contribution to the energy capital of the United States.
The Houston metropolitan area has one of the most rapidly growing and diverse populations in the entirety of the United States. In the Bayou City, individuals and groups of different cultures and nationalities all come together to create an efficient and ever-growing job market. Houston and its surrounding suburbs are interconnected by avenues and boulevards booming with culture and heritage. The area is home to almost seven million residents as of 2020, and as the population continues to grow, Houston continues to diversify. Immigrants-- first generation, second generation, and so forth-- are a fundamental group that makes up for a large fraction of Houston's population. Immigrants now account for 17% of the state’s total population and support the local economy in a growing number of industries.
As workers, business owners, taxpayers, and neighbors, immigrants are an integral part of Texas’ diverse and thriving communities and make extensive contributions that benefit all Houstonians. In this article, we will be taking a look at the actuality of immigrant life - specifically, who makes up the working immigrant population in Houston and the details surrounding their contributions to the cities workforce in multiple industries. We will also take a look at quality of life in regards to education and financial status.
Immigrants and The Labor Force
Immigrants make up over a fifth of Houston's growing labor force. When one thinks of the labor provided by immigrants, there are many assumptions of work primarily in construction or food service. However, data shows that immigrants work in several different occupations. The data below illustrates the different fields in which immigrants make up a significant share of workers.
Stereotypes regarding the work ethic and/or employability of immigrants can paint such workers in a negative light. We have all heard the argument that immigrants "steal" available jobs from natural-born citizens, but evidence proves that the majority of the work done by immigrants are jobs that make up the lowest percentile of jobs held by natural-born citizens. The impact of immigrant labor on the wages of native-born workers is low. That being said, undocumented workers often work the unpleasant, back-breaking jobs that native-born workers are not willing to do.
In Houston (and nationally), foreign-born men are more likely to work than U.S.-born men, and the opposite is true for foreign-born and native-born women. In 2016, immigrant men had the highest labor-force participation rate of any group of adults: 88%.
It is worth remembering that not all high-immigrant occupations are lower-skilled and lower-wage. As will be discussed further in the following section, many immigrants hold employment in industries that are high-pay and require years of skill refinement. For example, 44% of medical scientists are immigrants, as are 34% of software engineers, 27% of physicians, and 25% of chemists.
Immigrants as Entrepreneurs
Many do not know that immigrants account for a large portion of business owners- larger, in fact, than that of native-born business owners. Foreign-born entrepreneurs are also behind 51% of our country’s billion dollar startups. In addition, more than 40% of Fortune 500 firms have at least one founder who was an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. 29% of Fortune 500 companies based in Texas were founded by immigrants or their children.Those firms generate $510B in annual revenue, and employ 584,881 people globally.
Immigrants and The Pursuit of Knowledge
Immigrants in Texas are found across the educational spectrum. Nearly one in four adult immigrants had a college degree or more education in 2015, while two in five had less than a high school diploma. In fall 2015, there were 20,063 international students at colleges and universities in the Houston metro area.
The impact of immigration on scientific development in not only Houston, but the entirety of the United States, is more than just the story of a relatively open door to immigrants who excel in science, engineering, and so forth. It is much more than the Einstein Visa. Over the last four decades, American universities and institutes of knowledge have played a major role in the training of immigrants to become experts in the field of science. Foreign students have become increasingly central to American higher education, particularly in graduate education in engineering and the sciences.
A More Personal Look Into The Life of an Immigrant
There are reasons why Texas sees such an influx of immigrants each year. The strong economy and the Texas business model— which revolves around low taxes, few regulations and a generally low cost of labor—have attracted many businesses and workers in recent decades. This influx has, in turn, stimulated more economic growth. Despite a surge of high-skilled immigration since the 1990's, large shares of immigrants in Houston live below the poverty line and depend on welfare programs. Additionally, the Trump administration, its proposed immigration policies, and the rhetoric of the president himself are posing new and significant barriers to health access for immigrants and their families.
Jose Ferreira, an immigrant and legal resident of the United States for over a decade, says, "You hear about immigrants who have a right to be here- in the states- getting detained by ICE. You hear about citizens getting arrested by ICE. It's terrifying, because even if I'm allowed to reside here, I can still be taken from my family. There's always that chance."
Yet not all immigrants live their lives in fear of their future being taken away. Many immigrants see the U.S. as a place in which they can share their cultures and experience new ones. "I came here because the country I lived the first half of my life in was a violent place for people of my religion," states Ferreira's coworker and friend, Pakistani immigrant Janik Gummandi. "I saw- and still see- the United States as a place that can offer me a life that I did not have in my home country. I can share my culture, practice my religion freely, and meet people who have similar stories as mine."