Migrants agree: It's harder to get jobs

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Migrants agree: It's harder to get jobs
The immigration debate is affecting migrant workers: A new poll showed it's getting more difficult to find work and discrimination is rising.

Posted on Thu, Aug. 09, 2007
BY PABLO BACHELET AND CASEY WOODS
[e-mail]

He has a mother in Honduras who needs money for her medication, rent on a house in Homestead that he struggles to pay, and he has a daughter in South Florida whom he wants to support.

And each day, it seems, it's harder to get a job.

''The money I make means the survival of my family, and the work seems to have disappeared so quickly,'' said González, 42, who spends his days in a parking lot near the Cutler Ridge Home Depot with other day laborers. ``Things have gotten really terrible for immigrants.''

A new study indicates that González's view is shared by a growing number of migrants from Mexico and Central America. They are finding it harder to get jobs and are living under a dramatically increased sense of siege, according to the report by the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank and the Bendixen polling firm in Miami.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/197218.html

[shireen]

1. this is really sad

i feel for these people ... they're caught between a rock and a hard place.

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. is this a bad thing?

I mean, I feel sorry for folks who come over looking for work and can't find any. But if it's harder for illegal immigrants to find work in this country, maybe that's a good thing and it'll make them less inclined to hop over the border. Or maybe hop over to Canada and become their issue/problem.

Lots of natural-born and legal immigrant Americans can't find work either.

[treestar]

3. It's probably a bad thing for them

Since they wouldn't have come at all if there were jobs at home.

Nonamericans think of themselves as people too.

[fujiyama]

4. I feel bad for people in such difficult situations

and God knows our government can do a lot more to alleviate poverty at home and worldwide...but there are US Citizens, Permanent Residents, and all other types of LEGAL VISA holders that are having trouble finding jobs.

If legal immigrants are having a tougher time finding a job due to discrimination, it is absolutely unacceptable. However, if companies are getting more strict about checking papers for employees, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[treestar]

8. What's the unemployment rate?

Who is having trouble finding a job? Are you sure it's a cushy job they aren't having trouble finding, of the kind the illegals never take?

And you're accepting the H-1Bs, because they are legal. You only have a problem with those who are illegal.

I don't know anyone who has trouble finding a job and wishes they had one that some illegal alien has ( I don't know any illegal aliens) but that's because I'm a privileged middle class person. As such, it doesn't bother me that poverty stricken people find jobs, no matter who they are and where they find the job.

[fujiyama]

15. I have a problem

with those that would skirt the laws to enter this country and believe those that entered legally should be given preference to stay over those that did not follow the process.

But I am opposed to nativist hysteria and immigrant bashing as well. If it's true that the government is cracking down on those employers hiring undocumented workers, then it's good (I'd be surprised though because many of these employers are cheap labor conservatives . If employers were not hiring illegal immigrants, this wouldn't be as much of a problem. I have sympathy for those people that want to work hard and send money back home...and yes, many of those backbreaking jobs won't be done by Americans - at least not at subsistence wages undocumented workers are being paid.

The article was unclear about who is facing the discrimination and whether legal immigrants are facing more of it too (that's possible due to the RW's fear based campaign against all brown people). Unfortunately, many people don't view this issue rationally...

[THUNDER HANDS]

5. well, yeah

it sucks for them, no doubt about it. And I didn't mean to imply they weren't people. Just that people who hop undocumented into this country shouldn't be pitied when they can't find available work. It means the system is working. If companies didn't hire undocumented workers, people wouldn't come to this country looking for work.

And the people who are working would be paid, at least, a minimum wage. And not just whatever some hirerer wants to give them.

Being out of work sucks, and I wish we had a better system to help everyone. But that's not going to happen.

[razorman]

18. I agree. But, as bad as I may feel for the illegals who have a hard time finding work,

it is not our responsibility to provide for them. If their government and society would reform and improve conditions, they would not feel compelled to leave home and come here.

[tazkcmo]

6. It's hard for me too. n/t

[Virginian]

12. Me too. I wish I could get one of those H1b jobs

It's hard for a 56 year old woman to compete in this job market with the 26(ish) year old men from other countries.

[meowomon]

7. It Sucks!

But we need to keep people from being exploited by business. A few years ago in northern Florida there were some illegal immigrants kept as virtual slaves by a landowner. I say let them stay, allow them to work legally and find a way to achieve citizenship. Close the porous borders and fine the Corporate Greed-mongers up the yazoo when they hire or import illegal labor. And get rid of union busting laws!

[Igel]

9. Oddly, the paper didn't divulge a number that I know the

pollsters have, and which would be pertinent.

Migrants and immigrants are facing "discrimination" and are having a harder time. But they also collected information as to which of the respondents were here legally, and which were here illegally.

I think that in addition they should have given numbers by immigration status. "They are finding it harder to get jobs and are living under a dramatically increased sense of siege, according to the report by the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank and the Bendixen polling firm in Miami," the article says, but surely legal immigrants would have a far easier time *not* living under a state of siege. Or would they? The pollsters could answer that question, but chose not to.

And if there's a growing "anti-immigrant" sentiment, is that the same or different from a growing "anti-illegal-immigrant" sentiment? (And this non-distinction was my beef with the "immigrant" rallies.)

It's an especially interesting point because a number of people are of the "if they didn't get jobs, they wouldn't come here" persuasion.

[obiwan]

10. Although I feel for "undocumented" immigrants...

... I have to say yeah, it's probably hard to get a job in a country of which you are NOT a legal resident. I have been a LEGAL resident of this country for over 50 years, since my birth, and it was really hard for me to get a job for a large portion of my career, and I have a college education and a lot of experience in a highly technical field. I have had to retrain for three different careers in my lifetime. So I guess I can understand how illegal immigrants feel. Lean on Mexico politically and economically and have them EDUCATE their people so they can make a living in Mexico. Look, I generally am a compassionate person, but it is hard to be compassionate when your own birth country turns its back on you and doesn't care.

[roody]

11. Illegal immigrants are not taking your high tech jobs.

They are working in the fields, cleaning, restaurant kitchens and fast food, and doing heavy labor jobs. I know lots of undocumented immigrants and their children. They work very hard for low wages.

[obiwan]

17. I sympathize with that...

... but they are still here illegally. That's my only beef. My point is, if you want to live here, do it by LEGAL means. Obey the law.

If I tried to live and work illegally in just about any other country in the world, I would be in jail.

Believe me, I have been poor for most of my life. I have been supporting myself since I was 17. I put myself through college on my own dime and got the grades to work at a "high tech" job. To get there, I had to work plenty of shitty, low wage jobs, so I am no stranger to that.

[knight_of_the_star]

16. I doubt Mexico would do so

The plutocracy in Mexico is practically hard-wired into their system of government and that makes a huge difference compared to here. While in the US there is excess and unwelcome corporate influence, here they can't be completely open and as such are limited more so than in Mexico were they don't need to fear from a government they own and everyone knows it. If the immigrants here were back in Mexico and had nowhere to go that would be a recipe for a new civil war down there and the government there knows it.

[Xithras]

13. The implosion of the construction industry.

Legal or otherwise, if you depend on construction for jobs, you're hurting right now. The evaporation of the refi market and easy home loans has slashed the amount of cash tappable for the kinds of work these people do. It's hard to hire a tilesetter to slate the kitchen when you're trying to figure out how to make next months mortgage payment.

[lovuian]

14. when a recession hits of course you will see everybody

finding it hard to get a job

thats why its hard