A new hybrid area of law is springing from the sometimes tension-filled, sometimes harmonious, intersections between our nation’s immigration and employment policies. This evolving legal hybrid, what I call immployment law, demands our attention as it has significant, yet too-often underappreciated, implications for the practice of law. Given the longstanding separation between immigration and employment policymaking, why is this hybrid area of law emerging?
Recent labor market trends are a good place to start the immploymentlaw story. In recent decades, foreign workers have been increasingly participating in the U.S. labor force. Indeed, the last time we saw this level of labor-force participation by the foreign-born was during the early years of the twentieth century, when immigration regulations were more permissive. This growing segment of our labor force stands at the crossroads of immigration and employment regulation. As foreign workers, they are simultaneously subject to immigration and employment regulations, thereby encouraging us to consider these two areas of law in relationship to one another.
