Mexican Labor in California's Economy: From Rapid Growth to Likely Stability. RAND Reprints.

Over the past 20 years, California has experienced a continuous, growing flow of Mexican immigrant laborers. Although Mexican labor was originally linked to agriculture, by 1980 Mexican-born labor was filling a substantial proportion of jobs in all sectors of the California economy, particularly in manufacturing. Because they are concentrated in lower-skilled occupations, Mexican immigrants as a group command lower wages and have higher unemployment rates than other immigrants and the native-born. Mexican immigrants to California originate mostly from the western Pacific region of Mexico. This immigrant flow is characterized by the increasing permanence of migrant stays north of the border, the steady educational gap between Mexican-born labor and the U.S.-born population, and the relatively low economic mobility of Mexican-born immigrants in the United States. California faces difficult policy challenges because of the relatively low level of schooling, low wages, and low economic mobility that characterize an increasingly larger stock of Mexican immigrants (in part due to high fertility rates in Mexico). Although demand for labor in California is expected to remain strong, the supply of immigrants is expected to stabilize or decline due to recent immigration policy and the potential impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement. (KS)