Can You Verify? Addressing Work Authorization Restrictions As Obstacles to Workforce Development Equity for Immigrant Workers
Mar 09, 2022
- Description
This year, the Governor proposed over $250 million in funding for workforce development specifically intended to benefit immigrant communities. These investments include job training, support services, "earn and learn" opportunities, and more—promising, welcome, and necessary funding for our communities to gain better jobs in the workforce.
But what does our current public workforce development system look like, especially for undocumented immigrant workers? Our latest research on workforce development, building off of our prior work, investigates how work authorization requirements may create unnecessary barriers for California's undocumented immigrant workforce when attempting to access public workforce services and resources.
This report is the first-ever empirical analysis of the discrepancies in local workforce boards' policies and practices related to immigrant access to workforce development services.
It offers new insights through original survey data collected from California's 45 local workforce development boards, COVID-19 and industry data on immigrant workers, and strategic recommendations that the California Workforce Development Board can implement to better support undocumented immigrant workers and remove exclusionary, and unneccesary, restrictions.
