Table 3. Fatal occupational injuries of foreign-born workers by occupation, 1994
Occupation Number Percent
698 100
Managerial and professional specialty. 68 10
Executive, administrative, and manager 47 7
Managers, food serving, lodging 14 2
Professional specialty 241 3
Technical, sales, and administrative support .. 185 a7
Airplane pilots 12 2
Sales occupations .. 163 23
Supervisors and proprietors 79 W
Sales workers, retail and personal service 81 12
Cashier ... aT 7
Service occupations .. 62 9
Protective service 19 3
Cleaning and building service 13 2
Personal service ..... 12 2
Farming, forestry, and fishing. 73 10
Farm workers. 40 6
Groundskeepers, gardeneners 7 2
Precision production, craft, repair 84 12
Mechanics and repairers 26 3
Construction trades .... $2 7
Operators, fabricators, laborers 215 31
Machine operators 19 3
Transportation and material moving 104 15
Motor vehicle operators 86 12
Truck drivers .. 50 7
Taxicab drivers, chauffeurs .. 33 5
Water transportation occupations "1 2
Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, labo: 92 13
Construction laborers % 5
Laborers, excluding const K 5
Military . 5 1
Other or unspecified ... 6 1
NOTE: Totals for major categories may include subcat- SOURCE: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries,

egories not shown separately. Percentages may not add to 1994, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor,

totals because of rounding.

in cooperation with State and Federal agencies.

Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997 44

. —r


Table 2. Fatal occupational injuries by Industry, 1994

All workers: Foreign-born workers
Industry SIC | rel
code Number Percent Number Percent
Total . 6,632 100 698 100
Private industry .. 5,959 90 670 96
Agriculture, forestry and fishing 852 13 68 10
Agricultural production - crops 1 443 7 2B 4
Agricultural production - lives! 02 172 3 1 2
Agricultural services .. 07 163 2 20 3
Mining... 180 3 7 1
Construction 1,028 16 91 13
General building contractors 15 190 3 19 3
Heavy construction, except building .. 16 246 4 14 2
Special trades contractors ... 17 592 9 58 8
Manufacturing 789 12 a 8
Transportation and public utilities .. 949 14 108 15
Local and interurban passenger transportation 4 114 2 32 5
Taxicabs... 4121 102 2 3 4
Trucking and warehousing 42 505 8 3 5
Water transportation .. “4 48 1 12 2
‘Transportation by air . 45 99 1 W 2
Wholesale trade 271 4 23 3
Retail trade .. 808 12 215 3
Food stores 5A 237 4 107 15
Automotive dealers and service stations .. 55 123 2 12 2
Eating and drinking places .. 58 184 3 B 5
Finance, insurance, and real estate ... 13 2 7 1
853 13 a4 12
73 255 4 21 3
Automotive repair, services, and parking .. 75 a1 1 13 2
Government 2. 673 10 28 4
Federal (including resident armed forces) att 3 7 1
State .. 114 2 5 1
338 5 14 2

‘ Standard industrial Classification Manual, 1987 Edition.
2 Includes fatalities to workers employed by governmental organi-
zations regardless of industry.

NOTE: Totals for major categories may include subcategories not

43 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997

shown separately. Percentages may not add to totals because of

SOURCE: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1994, Bureau
of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, in cooperation with State

and Federal agencies.



Table 4. Fatal occupational injuries by selected worker characteristics, 1994

Alt worker Foreign-born Foreign-born population
Characteristics fatalities workers fatalities {in thousands)
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent

6,632 100 698 100 22,568 100

5,370 81 562 81 - -

1,262 19 136 19 - -

726 " 91 13 5,124 23

1,567 24 210 30 5,269 23

1,619 24 193 28 4,522 20

2,176 33 183 26 5,014 22

525 8 21 3 2,640 12

6,104 92 658 94 11,132 49

528 8 40 6 11,436 51

5,460 82 410 59 15,428 68

707 Ww 69 10 1,596 7

183 3 142 20 4,630 2

‘Other or unspecified .. 282 4 7 11 - -

Hispanic origin
Hispani 624 9 336 438 10,270 46
- Dash indicates data not available. SOURCE: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1994, Bureau

NOTE: Totals for major categories may include subcategories not ~—_of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, in cooperation with State
shown separately. Percentages may not add to totals because of and Federal agencies.
founding.

45 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997



Safety and Health

Occupational
Fatalities Among
the Immigrant
Population

BY JANICE WINDAU

Immigrants come to the United States for a variety of
reasons. Some come to study, but stay after finding work.
Others move here to make money to send back home or
they come to join friends or family already here. Still oth-
ers emigrate to escape violence in their native country. But
whatever their reason, most come to fulfill dreams of a bet-
ter life. Unfortunately, some immigrants find these dreams
shattered as a result of violence, highway traffic accidents,
or other fatal incidents in the workplace.

Profile of the foreign-born population in the United
States

Foreign-born residents are both more educated and less
educated than native-born Americans. Although foreign-
born persons aged 25 or older are less likely to have gradu-
ated from high school, they are also more likely than na-
tives to have a college or even graduate or professional
degree.1 As a result, jobs held by the foreign-born vary
widely. Some immigrants are in the professional special-
ties such as medicine, engineering, and teaching. Others
work in family run businesses, such as convenience stores
and stationery shops. Many initially work as migrant farm
laborers or taxi drivers and then move on to construction,
poultry processing, or business once they have learned the
culture and language.”

Fatal work injuries of the foreign-born

Nearly 700 workers born in other countries were killed
in the United States during 1994, accounting for a little
over one-tenth of all fatally injured workers in the coun-
try.> Although this percentage is consistent with their share

Janice Windau is an epidemiologist in the Office of Safety, Health and
Working Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telephone (202) 606-7175.

OO TT

of the employed in the United States, foreign-bom workers
suffered a disproportionate share of the victims of work-
place homicide during 1994, comprising about one-fourth
of the total. This variance in job-related homicide was even
more pronounced for certain occupations, The foreign-born
accounted for 42 percent of the sales supervisors and pro-
prietors, 40 percent of the cashiers, and 29 percent of the
taxicab drivers who were victims of workplace homicide in
1994,

Moreover, 40 percent of the foreign-born worker fatali-
ties resulted from homicide, compared with 16 percent of
the fatalities among all U.S. workers. (See table 1.) High-
way traffic incidents, which resulted in 20 percent of the
fatal work injuries of all workers, accounted for 13 percent
of the fatalities among foreign-born workers. Falls ac-
counted for 10 percent of fatal work injuries among both
the foreign-born and all U.S. workers. Fatal work injuries
among foreign-born workers were less likely to have re-
sulted from being struck by falling objects and from
nonhighway transportation incidents such as tractor
rollovers than were fatalities among other workers.

Worker characteristics

Almost one-third of the foreign-born workers killed on
the job in 1994 worked in retail trade, such as grocery stores
and eating and drinking establishments, compared with one-
eighth of the Nation’s native-born workers who died on the
job that year. (See table 2.) Most of these deaths were the
result of being shot during a robbery attempt, Moreover,
the foreign-bom accounted for almost half of all workers
killed in food stores during 1994,

By contrast, foreign-born workers who were fatally in-
jured were less likely than their native cohorts to have
worked in agricultural production, construction, mining,

Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997 40


Country of birth

Jamaica’
China
El Salvador

Korea

Chart 1. Foreign-born fatally injured at work versus foreign-born population, 1994

Canada

Cuba

Vietnam

oO Foreign-born population

H Foreign-born fatalities

(Total = 22,568,000)

(Total = 698)

Dominican Republic

India

Mexico
it J.

O 5 10

' Foreign-born population not available for Jamaica.

Percent of total foreign-born

SOURCE: US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1994

15 20 25 30 35

manufacturing, and public administration.

Sales occupations, such as supervisor and proprietor and
cashier, accounted for almost one-fourth of the fatal work
injuries among the foreign-born. Moreover, the foreign-
born comprised about a third of the fatality victims em-
ployed in these occupations; a similar portion of taxicab
drivers killed while at work were immigrants. (See table
3.)

Mexico was the native country of 31 percent of the for-
eign-borm who were fatally injured at work, compared with
28 percent of the foreign-bom in the general U.S. popula-
tion. (See chart 1.) Workers born in the Dominican Re-
public, India, and Vietnam also had larger shares of fatal
work injuries than their share of the foreign-born popula-
tion as a whole. By contrast, the Philippines, which is the
country of birth for 5 percent of the foreign-born popula-
tion in 1994, accounted for 2 percent of the foreign-born
workers who were fatally injured.

Almost half the fatal work injury victims bom in other
countries were of Hispanic origin, and one-fifth were of
Asian descent. (See table 4.) Asians were particularly hard
hit by homicide at work, accounting for about one-third of
the homicide victims among foreign-bom workers and one-
tenth ofall workplace homicide victims. Foreign-born vic-
tims of fatal work injuries were slightly younger and were
more likely to be men than other workers fatally injured on

41 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997

the job during the year. The percent of workers who were
self-employed or working for the family business was simi-
lar between the two groups.

State where fatal injury occurred

California, which has the largest number of residents
born outside the United States, had the largest number of
fatal work injuries among the foreign-born in 1994. The
foreign born accounted for 28 percent of the fatal work in-
jury victims in California, compared with 24 percent of the
resident population. Foreign-born workers in New York
and New Jersey also comprised large portions of occupa-
tional fatality victims in these States. The following table
lists those States with 15 or more foreign-born worker fa-
talities.

State Total work piace Foreign-born
fatalities fatalities
California 639 180
‘New York 364 113
Texas 497 90
Florida 358 62
New Jersey 114 2
Pennsylvania 354 22
Utinois. 247 24
Ohio 209 16
Virginia 164 15



Table 1. Fatal occupational injuries by event or exposure, 1994

All worker fatalities Foreign-born worker fatalities
Event or exposure __
Number Percent Number Percent

6,632 100 698 100
1,321 20 297 43
1,080 16 277 40
934 14 247 35
214 3 18 3
2,762 42 192 28
1,343 20 91 13
409 6 16 2
Worker struck by vehicle 391 6 33 5
Aircraft incident... 426 6 32 5
‘Water vehicle incident 94 1 16 2
Falls ... 665, 10 72 10
Falls to 580 9 68 10
Fall from roof. 129 2 20 3
1,017 15 C3 9
590 9 <) 5
372 6 21 3
‘Caught in equipment or objects 280 4 25 4
Caught in running equipment 147 2 17 2
Caught in collapsing materials .. 132 2 6 1
Exposure to harmful substances or environments. 641 10 63 9
Contact with electric current .. 348 5 Ky 4
Contact with temperature extremes 50 1 7 1
Exposure to caustic, noxious, or allergenic sut 133 2 15 2
Drowning ... 89 1 9 1
Fires and explosions .. 202 3 9 1

NOTE: Totals for major categories may include subcategories not
shown separately. Percentages may not add to totals because of
rounding.

SOURCE: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1994, , Bureau
of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, in cooperation with State
and Federal agencies.

—ENDNOTES—

’ Population data are from “The Foreign-Bom Population: 1994” by
Kristin A. Hansen and Amara Bachu, Current Population Report p.20-486,
U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, August 1995.
Educational and income levels vary among the foreign-born, particularly
among naturalized citizens and noncitizen immigrants, as shown by the table

Percent distribution of educational attainment for persons 25 and
over, 1994

Foreign-born
Education US. Natural-
native | Total | ized | Not@
citizen citizen
ae | 100 | 100 | 100 100
Nothigh school graduate. | 17 36 24 43
High school bot grac/’some
61 a 49 37
15 15 7 13
7 8 9 7

Naturalized citizens even had a slightly higher median income in 1994
than did U.S, natives, $16,103 compared with $15,876 and $12,179 for the
total foreign born.

2 See “Asian-Indian Americans,” by Marcia Mogelonsky in American
Demographics, August 1995; “African Immigrants Who Aren’t Black,” by
‘Tibbett Speer, American Demographics, January 1994; and “Migrant La-
bor: A World Apart, Following the Sun,” by Pamela Stallsmith in the Rich-
mond Times Dispatch, November 10, 1996 for additional discussion of im-
migrants.

+ Data on fatal work injuries are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’
Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1994. This program, which has col-
lected occupational fatality data nationwide since 1992, uses diverse data
sources to identify, verify, and profile fatal work injuries. Information about
‘each workplace fatality (occupation and other worker characteristics, equip-
ment being used, and circumstances of the event) is obtained by cross-refer-
‘encing source documents, such as death certificates, workers’ compensation
records, and reports to Federal and State agencies. This method assures counts
are as complete and accurate as possible. For more information on the CFOI
‘program, access the World Wide Web at (stats.bis. gov/oshfat].htm) or e-mail
(cfoistaff @bls.gov).

“Differences may merely result from the use of population rather than
employment data. The foreign-born population includes some persons not
Subject to fatal work injuries, such as those in the labor force but not em-
ployed as well as persons not in the labor force, such as young children and
retired persons. The foreign-born population in this brief may include some
undocumented immigrants, refugees, and temporary residents, such as stu-
dents and temporary workers, as well as legally admitted immigrants. Be-
sides these groups, fatality counts may include foreign-born natives because
information on citizenship of parents is not available in the CFOI program.
Fatality counts may also include nonresidents, such as workers in the United
States temporarily on a business trip.

Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997 42

a at