Economic crisis and its effects on highly skilled immigrants in the United States

In this research I analyze the effects the 2008 economic crisis had on the economic integration of highly educated immigrants in the United States. The situation described in this paper is that of the best situated immigrant group (highly skilled) in a poor context of reception (deep economic crisis). While it is predictable that low educated immigrants would do poorly during an economic crisis, it is not obvious what will happen to those well educated. Will they also be more affected than the native born? The results of this research show that racial/ethnic characteristics and type of education are important explanatory factors for how highly skilled foreign born evolved through crisis. Further analyses reveal that the economic depression affected significantly the unemployment rates, but not the wages of foreign born skilled workers relatively to the general native born and within the same racial group.