The Immigrant Learning Center Public Education Institute published Immigrant Essential Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic, a research report on the vital work of immigrants in the United States during the COVID-19 crisis. Immigrants have played a crucial role in many essential industries, including health care, agriculture, food service, retail and more. This report reveals the extraordinary contributions immigrants have made in these essential jobs, despite lacking many of the protections and benefits offered to U.S.-born workers. It also explores policies that helped and hindered foreign-born workers and explores strategies that would support immigrant essential workers in the next public health crisis. By combining labor force data and more than 30 interviews with experts, organizers and immigrant essential workers, this report fills a significant gap in the public understanding of foreign-born workers’ role in the crisis. The ILC Public Education Institute’s work illustrates that valuing immigrant essential workers is a matter of national urgency. Please read and share Immigrant Essential Workers During the COVID-19 Crisis to learn more about this vital issue.

A recording of the webinar that launched the report, featuring the report’s authors and immigration experts, is available here.