U.S. News: Immigrants Benefit As Economy Recovers
For Gustavo Torres, head of an immigrant employment center near Washington, D.C., the uptick in the economy is measured by the surge in demand for his blue-collar workers, who hail mainly from Latin America and Africa.</br></br>"The recovery is working for our community," said Mr. Torres, executive director of Casa de Maryland, which boasts five job centers in the state. "It's unbelievable how many jobs are becoming available."</br></br>In the year that ended June 2010, Casa placed 19,000 immigrants in jobs, compared with 16,000 in the year-earlier period.</br></br>A new study released Friday by the Pew Hispanic Center confirms that immigrants are benefiting before native-born workers from the slow-paced economic recovery.</br></br>Foreigners gained 656,000 jobs in the first year following the official end of the recession in June 2009. Native-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs, according to an analysis of government data by Pew, a nonpartisan research group.