For a variety of pertinent political, social, economic, and community reasons, there is a strong demand for information about the nation’s immigrant populations. Much of the concern is about unauthorized persons living and working in the U.S. There, too, is vigorous discussion within our business communities about the need for more liberal and inclusive immigration programs that allows the U.S. to attract and keep more of the world’s scientific, engineering, medical, and other highly educated professions. Immigration policy and immigration issues mean different things to different interests in different places of the economy and the country.

This report is a straightforward comparison of the economic participation characteristics of native‐born and foreign‐born persons residing in Iowa at the time of the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS). The Census Bureau samples a substantial fraction of the U.S. and state populations in preparing their annual estimates of the U.S. population. Those data are available as the Public‐Use Micro‐Sample (PUMS) for regions within states (called PUMS regions), states, and for the nation. This report assesses the PUMS one‐percent sample for the state of Iowa for 2006: that means that we are using a sample of the population to infer to the characteristics of all Iowans.