Immigrants are the future of the Massachusetts labor force, but local and state leaders need to take action to make sure they are able to take on the available jobs. That was the message that Peter A. Creticos, president and director of the Chicago-based Institute for Work and the Economy , shared with representatives of government, business and nonprofit groups in Leominster Thursday.
Creticos said that the state’s foreign-born population has become better educated over the years, but immigrants still tend to have less education than their native-born peers.
At the same time, he said, college-educated immigrants are often unable to use their training once they come to this country. The problem is particularly significant among Latin Americans, he said. Of college-educated Latino immigrants who came to Massachusetts since 1996, he said, 44 percent are in unskilled jobs.
Creticos said part of the solution is encouraging employers to look at credentials that workers earned in other countries. He said it is also important to offer education and training to immigrants. While some training, such as English classes, are a unique need of immigrants, he said other types of education should be made equally available to foreign- and native-born workers. That helps to avoid the kinds of conflicts that sometimes crop up between the two groups, he said.
Creticos is a fellow at the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame University. The talk was part of the What’s Next? series sponsored by Mount Wachusett Community College’s Center for Democracy and Humanity.
