What Do You Know About Immigration in Maryland?

Jeanette E. Sherbondy • July 17, 2023


Despite our belief that this nation is open and welcoming — as symbolized by the Statue of Liberty — immigrants are often misunderstood. The Declaration of Independence distills our notion of what holds Americans together — the promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” — but this promise is daily tested by our immigration system.

 

Aviva Chomsky’s groundbreaking book on the myths about immigrants — “They Take Our Jobs” and 20 Other Myths about Immigration — challenges us to hold off on generalizations until we find the facts, but we still muddle facts with fictions.

 

Let’s begin by testing what we know. The Maryland Center on Economic Policy (MDCEP), in partnership with the Immigration Research Initiative, published the results of a study of the economic roles of immigrants in Maryland’s economy. The report is titled “Immigrants in the Maryland Economy: Overcoming Hurdles, Yet Still Facing Barriers.” Here are some findings.

 

Who is an immigrant?

Immigrants are people born in another country and who live in the United States, whatever their immigration status, including refugees, asylum seekers, people with green cards, naturalized citizens, people with temporary visas, and immigrants who are undocumented.

 

How many immigrants live in Maryland?

There are over 940,000 immigrants in Maryland, or about 15% of the state’s population. They are part of the social, economic, and cultural life of all Maryland communities.

 

How do immigrants affect Maryland’s economy?

According to MDCEP, the economic role of immigrants has frequently been misunderstood. They are a big and important part of the state’s economy.

  • Immigrants account for 19% of the state economic output (GDP), even higher than their share of the population (15%).
  • Maryland has a $438 billion economy, which means that immigrants are responsible for at least $83 billion of economic output.
  • Immigrants make up 19% of the working-age population (ages 16 to 64), and 20% of the labor force.

 

What kinds of wages do immigrants earn?


Immigrants work in jobs across the economic spectrum. A common misperception is that immigrants are mostly people in low-wage work. However, 63% of those with full-time jobs are in middle- or upper-wage occupations. But it is also true that immigrants are more likely than U.S.-born workers to be in low-wage occupations.

 

What role do race and gender play in economic outcomes?

  • Most workers in Maryland (immigrants and U.S.-born) are in jobs where they make middle and upper wages.
  • Race, gender, and nativity all stand out as significant factors affecting individuals’ economic outcomes.
  • Black and Latinx workers, especially foreign-born Latinx workers, are significantly less likely to earn middle and upper wages than other workers, and are more likely to be stuck in low-wage jobs.
  • Women are much less likely than men to make a decent wage.
  • People who are White have considerably higher wages than Black or Latinx workers, whether they are U.S.-born or immigrants.
  • Immigrant women of color are more likely to have lower wages than U.S.-born women of color. More than half (54%) of Latinx immigrant women are low-wage workers

 

The report documents the wage inequity existing in Maryland that is experienced by so many women and people of color. The authors state:

 

“The number of Latinx immigrants making low wages highlights the economic struggles of a group of Americans who are often the target of hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric, actions of the U.S. deportation regime, and workplace abuses, as well as barriers they may face due to a level of formal education or English language ability.”

 

The authors continue:

 

“Notably, the disparities brought on by systemic racism, class inequality, misogyny, and nativism are clearly quantifiable and surely create barriers limiting individuals’ ability to succeed in the economy.”

 

What do low, middle, and upper wage occupations look like?

Low-wage jobs

Most immigrants in low-wage occupations are in the service sector, notably janitors and house cleaners, restaurant workers, construction workers, teaching assistants and teachers, transportation workers, and retail sales.

  • 63% are in service or construction. This accounts for 74,000 full-time, year-round immigrant workers.
  • Almost half (3,700) of all taxi drivers in the state are immigrant workers. Low-wage jobs are low-barrier occupations, and many highly educated immigrants start out this way in the U.S.
  • Immigrants make up 35% of all low-wage service workers, well higher than immigrants’ 20% share of the labor force overall.

 

Middle-wage jobs

Middle-wage jobs that immigrants hold include jobs in the computer, engineering, and science occupations, healthcare sector jobs, educators, and managers.

  • 41,5000 immigrants in Maryland work as managers in a broad range of fields; 15% of all managers in Maryland are immigrants.
  • 11,200 immigrants are software developers and make up 26% of all middle-wage software developers.
  • Immigrants account for 45% of physical scientists and 19% of all engineers and architects.

 

Upper-wage jobs

  • 23,000 immigrants work in upper-wage occupations in Maryland.
  • 41% work in healthcare occupations: physicians, pharmacists, and dentists.
  • An additional one-third of immigrants who work in upper-wage jobs work in the management, business, and financial sector: computer information systems managers, chief executives, and architectural and engineering managers.

 

What about undocumented immigrants?

There are 168,000 undocumented workers in Maryland. The majority have service jobs, such as construction and maintenance. Others work in managerial and professional occupations and in production, transportation, or moving jobs, and a few (11%) in technical, sales, and administrative support.

 

How did you do?

Did you know these facts, or did you learn something new from this report?

 

 

Jeanette E. Sherbondy is a retired anthropology professor from Washington College and has lived here since 1986. In retirement she has been active with the Kent County Historical Society and Sumner Hall, one of the organizers of Legacy Day, and helped get highway /historical markers recognizing Henry Highland Garnet. She published an article on her ethnohistorical research of the free Black village, Morgnec.


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By CSES Staff • October 8, 2025
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