Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership
Unknowingly, ICE is reducing job applications from the immigrant community. And that can have significant business impacts.
Especially in cases when a significant portion of your customer base is comprised of immigrants. So that any reduction in new-hires with immigrant backgrounds will directly reduce your corporation’s ability to communicate with and have empathy for your immigrant customers.
Without these capabilities and the improved creativity and decision-making that diversity brings, many businesses will have difficulty maintaining their established production, sales, and customer service levels.
Realize That ICE’s Impact Extends Beyond the Undocumented
It’s a mistake to assume that an increasing level of immigration enforcement will only reduce job applications from undocumented workers. You can also expect fewer applications from these six groups within the immigrant community:
- U.S. citizens and green card holders who share the same national origin as many undocumented workers.
- U.S.-born citizens whose parents are undocumented.
- Documented immigrants with work authorizations.
- Green card holders who worry that applying for a job may trigger a review of their immigration status.
- Applicants from extended immigrant families who worry about ICE investigating their families.
- International workers who want a job in the U.S.
Factors That Reduce the Number of Applications From the Immigrant Community
Below you’ll find a list of the primary reasons corporations will receive fewer job applications from various segments of the immigrant community. The factors with the largest impact on job applications appear early on the list.
The fear of immigration issues will discourage legal members of immigrant families from applying for jobs – because of their real fear of generating immigration issues that may seep down into the more vulnerable members of their families. More legal family members will decide to remain in their current job or to stay unemployed. This will reduce the overall number of applications corporations receive.
Industries and cities that ICE has raided will receive fewer job applications – industry facilities that ICE has publicly targeted will experience a lower volume of job applications and higher employee turnover. Currently, those frequently raided industries include agriculture, construction, food processing, hospitality, manufacturing, cleaning/maintenance services, and federal court facilities. In the same light, sanctuary cities that ICE frequently raids will also receive fewer applications. These often raided sanctuary cities currently include Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.
Public-facing jobs will receive fewer applicants – because an immigrant employee is visible to the public every hour and inadvertently increases their chances of being seen by an ICE agent. So, jobs where the public will see employees will receive fewer applicants.
Fewer women from immigrant families will apply for corporate jobs – because of the real fear of immigration raids around schools. A significant percentage of women caregivers in immigrant families are choosing to stay home with children. As a result, these women won’t be applying for traditional corporate jobs.
A fear of applying for a job in public will reduce walk-in and job fair applications – many job seekers from the immigrant community have been accustomed to applying for a job in person, either at a retail place of business or a job fair. However, their fear of encountering ICE agents will significantly reduce both walk-in and job fair applications.
International applications will decrease because they fear not being welcomed – because so many corporations now recruit globally. You can expect a marked decrease in international applicants for US-based jobs (and any job with a US-based company). A growing percentage of international job seekers assume they will be unwelcome at US firms.
Being added to government or corporate databases will scare away many applicants – many members of the immigrant community will be discouraged from applying for corporate jobs. They know that once they go through the required E-Verify process, they will permanently become part of a huge government database. While others will be reluctant to apply for corporate jobs. They know that they will instantly be entered into a huge corporate ATS database once they apply. That ICE may one day have access to.
Facilities located close to day laborer pick up sites will see a reduction in immigrant community applications – obviously, having a day laborer pick up site nearby that is likely to be periodically raided (i.e., Home Depot) will also mean that businesses close by will see a decrease in walk-in applicants from the immigrant community.
Realize That Immigration Enforcement Will Change the Way Corporations Hire
This current focus on immigration enforcement will unintentionally require corporations to adjust the way that they hire. The recruitment areas that will have to change the most include:
Every corporation will need to tighten up its right-to-work verification process – due to the increased focus on both legal and illegal immigration, coupled with the negative publicity and the large corporate fines. For the first time, it will finally force all businesses to make their right-to-work verification processes 100% accurate.
Ghosting will dramatically increase among applicants from the immigrant community – even after applying for a job at your company. Many candidates from the immigrant community will have multiple reasons for dropping out of your hiring process and then ghosting you. In addition, an increasing number of applicants will be reluctant to attend face-to-face interviews. Either because they may need to take public transportation to get there, or because some from the immigrant community will fear that the interview itself is part of an ICE trap.
Managers may become reluctant to hire immigrants who have work authorizations – because the right to work privilege that was legally granted to some immigrant groups has recently been taken away almost overnight (e.g., Haitians and Afghans). Hiring managers may unconsciously become reluctant to hire those with legal work authorization. Based on their genuine fear that the immigrant’s right to work might be suddenly removed with little notice. So they will have to be let go.
Expected a drop in the referrals of those with immigration issues – because your employees will have no definitive way to know whether a potential referral has immigration issues. You can expect your employees to make fewer referrals among those who might potentially have immigration issues.
You will reduce your hiring as a result of the decrease in turnover among your employees from the immigrant community – because seeking a new job will cause your current employees to face numerous immigration related issues. For the foreseeable future, you can expect a measurably higher retention rate among your employees with immigrant or national origin backgrounds. And that lower turnover rate will mean that you will need to do less recruiting for jobs that are frequently filled by members of the immigrant community.
Fewer job postings will include other languages – because both recruiting leaders and some potential applicants will fear that a job posting that even partially includes another language will increase the likelihood of being scrutinized by ICE. This fear will cause more corporations to decide to only make their job postings in English and to also stop posting their jobs in non-English publications.
ICE will now be one of your direct corporate recruiting competitors – with billions in new funding, ICE and immigration-related agencies will hire continuously and aggressively. And with $50,000 sign-on bonuses, this government hiring campaign will now compete directly with your own ongoing corporate recruiting effort. The competition will be especially fierce when your corporation recruits diverse employees with multilingual skills and the ability to work with immigrants and minorities.
Recommended Actions
Fortunately, the reduction in applications from the immigrant community will be somewhat offset by our rising unemployment rates and fewer job openings. But unfortunately, there are only a handful of things corporate recruiting leaders can do to increase the number of applications from the immigrant community.
The first action is to make most of your hiring process electronic and remote, allowing potential applicants to complete most of it from home. And you will get more applicants from the immigrant community if you make a larger percentage of jobs 100% remote (so that the worker has little chance of being seen by an ICE agent).
You can also increase the number of useful employer referrals if you ask your employees to check on a prospect’s work authorization before they make a referral.
Finally, documented workers prefer same-day hiring, so accelerate your hiring process. More will apply because they know they will only be exposed to ICE and corporate hiring scrutiny for as little as a single day.
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