Are Immigrants at Increased Risk of Occupational Injury? A Literature Review

The aim of this review is to examine whether immigrant workers have a higher occupational injury rate than native employees. We collected 72 studies from around the world. A calculation based on 31 of these studies shows that the risk of occupational injury for foreign-born workers is 2.13 times higher than that of native-born workers. In seven studies immigrants actually had a lower occupational injury rate. At highest, immigrant workers had ten times the injury rate of native workers, whereas in one USA study the occupational injury rate of immigrant workers was only half of that of American-born workers. However, three studies consistently showed that immigrant workers had a higher injury rate than the original population during their first five years at the workplace, but that after five years their rate decreased to below the level of native workers. The conclusion of this study is that immigrant workers have a worse work conditions than native workers.