Introduction

It seems that despite the United States is a nation founded on the basis of inclusion and cultural diversity, immigration has divided the American people. On the one hand, some Americans see immigration as a threat to their culture, economy, and social welfare; on the other hand, others see immigration as an opportunity for growth, cultural enrichment, and economic development.

From a multicultural standpoint, the United States has had one of the most diverse immigrations in the world. It is said that the United States has been a magnet for immigrants since its foundation. This is believed to be one of the main reasons why people from all over the world have at least a few hundreds of their nationals living or with ties in the United States.

In a 21st-century scenario, it is believed that the United States has lost its focus on what immigration represents to its current state as a nation. Being the world’s largest economy, having patented, invented, and researched more than any other nation in modern history, seems only possible if immigrants had contributed and enriched such endeavors.

When it comes to education, the United States has promoted, invested, and developed programs to integrate immigrants and to make them known by the American people. However, certain groups such as the Hispanic/Latino immigrants in the United States have not been fully integrated to the American society due to barriers that pertain to cultural understanding. However, existing immigration policies do not fully consider the positive impact that foreign educated immigrants, immigrants in general, and cultural understanding could have on addressing ongoing immigration challenges.

Education

According to the American Association of Colleges and Universities, as of 2019 only 66% of high school completers had immediately enrolled in college, 44% of whom enrolled in four-year careers, and only 22% in two-year programs (Bourchrika, 2022).  

An interesting fact reported by Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, has to do with the fact that nearly two million college students in the United States will never complete college (Hess, 2018).

Another report by Richard Whitmire portraits the face of U.S. higher education success rates from the socioeconomic approach as it points to the difference between college enrollment and graduation rates; while the former keeps increasing throughout years, the latter remains almost flat. Whitmire’s analysis indicates that this is more acute among black and Hispanics students, highlighting that just 14 percent of black adults, and only 11 percent of Hispanic adults have bachelor’s degrees compared to 24 percent of white adults (Whitmire, 2019).

Labor Market

A quick search on the ONET website which shows the job descriptions, educational and training requirements for the majority of occupations in the United States can help us initiate the analysis of the U.S. labor market from a different standpoint. For example, industrial engineers’ required education under ONET framework states that most of industrial engineers in the United States require a four-year bachelor’s degree, but some do not (17-2112.00 – industrial engineers).

The Migration Policy Institute reports that 17 percent of college-educated adults in the United States were born abroad (Batalova, 2020). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics or Latinos form 18.9% of the total U.S. population by 2021 (United States Census Bureau). The Bureau also reports that the Hispanic population is expected to grow up to 30% of the U.S. total population by 2050 (Vespa et al., 2020).

Higher education in Latin America began much before than in the United States. The first university in the Americas, Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, predates Harvard University by more than one hundred years (First three universities in the Americas). Today, the total population of Latin America nears 658 million (Population total – Latin America & Caribbean).

The Migration Policy Institute has studied the impact that skills underutilization has among college-educated immigrants in the United States. It is reported that nearly 2 million immigrants with college degrees are employed in low-skilled jobs or are unable to find jobs. They refer to this as Brain Waste, and this, comes at a high cost to U.S. families as nearly $10 billion in taxes could be generated if these immigrants were employed according to their education (Batalova et al., 2016).

Enhanced Cultural Understanding

In the United States, the focus of the labor market is more on specific jobs rather than professional careers. Many individuals working in various occupations have received training or preparation through hands-on experience or vocational programs to fulfill their job duties. Although some job titles may sound professional, they are often geared towards carrying out specific tasks within an organization and typically do not require a university degree.

This contrasts with foreign labor markets where professionalization is paramount for climbing up the ladder in both personal realization and social status. One reason why professionalization is so important in other countries has to do with the fact that occupations have been designed for overqualified individuals. We see that the majority of workers that have received university education do not have opportunities to develop their skills due to labor market limitations in their countries.

Foreign labor markets are far away of competing with the remunerations in the United States despite these facts. No matter most workers do not have university degrees in the United States, compensations are way above most countries despite they are just trained for an occupation.

One stream of analysis based on the above literature reviewed can be tied to the fact that Hispanics or Latinos in the United States react differently to education. A relevant aspect to consider is the access to funding and opportunities that Hispanics or Latinos have in the United States, compared to the opportunities they have to graduate in their home countries under a more relaxed and cheaper model of education.

Another stream to consider is the fact that the U.S. labor market appears to run on occupations rather than professions. This is not the experience in most of the labor markets in Latin America. While in the United States overeducating individuals to enter the labor market would be expensive in terms of higher education costs, Latin American countries have traditionally overeducated their populations in order to serve labor markets that do not have the robustness to offer jobs according to their education. This poses a reality where Latin American college-educated workers compete in this depressed labor markets through the attainment of a profession since employers in such labor markets prefer to have overeducated individuals despite offering jobs that do not require by definition of such degrees.

When these immigrants arrive in the United States, barriers such as language, licensing, and other issues such as legal status and cultural integration seem to keep them from entering the labor market. It is valid to infer that if these immigrants were appropriately conducted through a process that enables them to work according to their education and skills, they could suffice the existing gap of those 2 million college students that do not complete their education by serving the labor market almost instantly. It is worth mentioning that those college-educated immigrants are already in the United States.

Summary

The understanding of Hispanic/Latino culture has been unfairly limited to the realm of social studies, when in reality it should be integrated across all academic disciplines, including the sciences and the arts.

If the purpose of education is to prepare men and women to be law abiding citizens and have the opportunity to develop as productive members in a society, it is imperative to consider the relationship that education and the labor market have in terms of the development of a nation.

Hundreds of years studying the trends of development and still there are certain aspects that need to align to the changing demographical scenario that is to come, especially in the United States.

Cultural understanding plays an important part in maintaining the United States successful path as the most prosperous nation in history. The fact that the presence Hispanics/Latinos is to grow exponentially to form 30% of the total U.S. population makes it reasonable to think of ways to prepare the American people for what is coming.