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Posts Tagged ‘Immigrant labor’

Workplace Raids Targeting Employers or Employed?

10:58 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor · 16 Comments

20 Jan 2011

This morning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E) is set to announce the creation of a new office with the express job of auditing companies suspected of hiring undocumented workers. While the alleged purpose of these efforts to is to insure that companies use workers eligible to the work in the U.S. and to find those that don’t, the effects increase the number of unemployed overall.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Morton [head of I.C.E] said the new center would have the “express purpose” of providing support to regional immigration offices conducting large audits. “We wouldn’t be limited by the size of a company,” he said.

The audits, which have affected garment makers, fruit growers and meat packers, result in the firing of everyundocumented immigrant on a company’s payroll. Companies say this has hurt them, especially as they can’t attract American workers even during an economic downturn.

Last year, for example, Gebbers Farm, an agricultural concern in Brewster, Wash., dismissed an estimated 550 workers—about a quarter of the local population—after ICE told the company a number of its employees’ hiring documents were suspect.

Latino Labor Day : Women’s Upward Mobility built on the back of Immigrant Work

8:56 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor|Women · 2 Comments

7 Sep 2009

56957448 Continuing thinking about labor on labor day, I would like to turn your attention to the struggles of mujeres, primarily immigrants, who work inside the homes of other women.

Immigrant women workers today form a pillar of the middle-class family. As nannies, housekeepers and other domestic workers, their status is defined by the strangely intimate nature of their work combined with structural discrimination. A new study presents at their hidden plight in a new light: as a driver of the advancement of the mothers they serve.

There is much talk still in mainstream feminist circles on the work at home vs stay at home mommy divide. Within these discussions however there is little if any analysis of how some women get to make this very decision and who takes the role of housekeeper and child care provider. It certainly isn’t the men of the household, assuming there is even a man in the picture. Rather it is immigrant women who often have never had the luxury of making a choice to stay home or to work outside the home.

Strange Fruit Revisited : The Lechuga Story

1:14 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · business|Immigration|Labor · Comments Off

5 Sep 2007

Remember when I challenged all those “send ‘em back” anti-immigration advocates in light of the impact that the lack of immigration reform could have on business and on prices? Today’s New York Times has a really interesting article about how farmers are renting fields in Mexico where they can get cheap labor directly from the source without worrying about immigration laws.One lettuce farmer who moved his operation south of the border gives his perspective:

He also dismisses arguments that he could attract workers by raising wages, saying Americans do not take the sweaty, seasonal field jobs. “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I did that I would raise my costs and I would not have a legal work force,” Mr. Scaroni said.

Image Via / NYT (Registration required)

Swift Raids Causing Less Latinos to Be Hired

9:38 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Labor · 2 Comments

21 Dec 2006

Immigration raids across the country earlier this month are having a negative impact on the hiring practices of companies. When in previous posts I have written about how the negative light cast upon so-called “illegal” immigration impacts all Latinos, this is a prime example.

Union leaders at Swift & Co.’s Grand Island, Neb., and Greeley, Colo., plants are reporting that the processor has been hiring fewer Hispanic immigrants to replace those caught in raids by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau last week.

In Greeley, for example, union president Ernie Duran told the Associated Press on Wednesday that of 75 new workers hired, 30 were Caucasians, 15 were Somali immigrants, seven were Hispanic immigrants and the rest were U.S.-born Hispanics. However, Hispanic immigrants have continued to seek employment at the plant, Duran said.

Almost 90 percent of the Greeley plant workforce was made up of Hispanics prior to the raids, Duran added, though he didn’t know how many were immigrants and how many were U.S.-born.

Via / Cattle Network

Image Via / Kare11.com

Immigrants (and those that hire them) are No Longer Safe

6:52 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|Immigration|Labor · Comments Off

31 Jul 2006

Among the immigrants here in the NYC area, labor raids have never been taken for granted as an article in today’s New York Times suggests. What may be more true, is that those in search of low cost workers, employers and business owners have been taking intervention by Homeland Security for granted, after all they are not the ones being sent back to their home countries, they are not the ones having their families destroyed and there always seems to be an unending flow of more workers to chose from. But now thanks to a new campaign, the focus is on those who hire undocumented workers, slapping them with felony charges that could lead to huge financial penalties and the seizing of assets.The focus of this article of course is not on the workers, but the employers and doesn’t even attempt to touch on the reasons why people want to work here at any cost and why employers hire at low cost.

Via / The New York Times (Registration required)

When Immigration Rules and Reality Aren’t Seeing Eye to Eye

3:09 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration · 3 Comments

29 May 2006

Excuse the slow posting day everyone. It’s a beautiful holiday out there today but while people are enjoying the beach and bbq’s and maybe taking a few moments to remember that this is Memorial Day and not just the unofficial start of the summer season, the immigration debate continues to dominate in the media. An article worth reading today is in the New York Times, which points out why immigration policy isn’t always in tune with immigartion reality. According to the article:

The United States offers 5,000 permanent visas worldwide each year for unskilled laborers. Last year, two of them went to Mexicans. In the same year, about 500,000 unskilled Mexican workers crossed the border illegally, researchers estimate, and most of them found jobs. “We have a neighboring country with a population of 105 million that is our third-largest trading partner, and it has the same visa allocation as Botswana or Nepal,” said Douglas S. Massey, a sociology professor at Princeton.

Help Wanted : Immigrants Only Need Apply?

11:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor · Comments Off

6 Apr 2006

Undocumented immigrants take jobs away from citizens. That statement is the underlying premise of an article written by Earl Ofari Hutchinson posted on AlterNet earlier this week. He cites examples of African-American men applying for jobs and being turned away only to have Latinos get the same low wage, no benefit gigs minutes later. So are immigrants taking jobs away from others, especially the urban poor? Or as Earl Ofari Hutchinson states are all of the urban poor , including immigrants not finding work :

because of discrimination, poor education, government budget slashes and the flight of manufacturers to other countries?

As long as communities fight each other instead of working with each other to get to the the real roots of the problems of unemployment, mass incarceration, and unfair wages , just to name a few issues, no community , will move forward except those already holding the power.

Via / AlterNet

Maegan La Mala: Thank you Julio! To be honest I was a little nervous. [...]

Ana L. Flores: I was very excited when you decided to join us. I really wanted your voice there as it would add dep [...]

Maegan La Mala: Hola Juliana and thanks for commenting. There is a dearth in activist/critical thinking Latino blogg [...]

Julio Ricardo Varela: Good for you for asking. I got goose bumps just reading this and yes, yes, yes, to it all. Thank you [...]

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