----- Original Message ----- From: "John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 1:30 PM Subject: RE: Mexican Diplomat Charged With Helping Smuggle Arabs Into U.S.
> At 02:07 PM 1/3/2004 -0500 Gary Nunn wrote: > >That depends if the US unemployed workers would be willing to jump in > >and take those jobs. This may be a stereotypical comment, but I suspect > >that many illegal immigrant workers are doing jobs that many US workers > >would refuse to do - even if they are unemployed. It would be an > >interesting experiment to model. > > Given the high percentage of them involved in activities like fruit > picking, construction, and janitorial services this is almost certainly true. > > But I'm not even sure that there are 8 to 11 million American citizens out > there without jobs to even take those jobs. For once, I have to agree with JDG. First of all, in most parts of the country, neither construction work nor farm work are year-round industries. According to http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/agworker/report_8.pdf In 1997-98, farmworkers spent, on average, about 47 percent of their time in U.S. farm work, 24 percent of their time living abroad, 19 percent of their time residing but not working in the U.S., and 8 percent of their time in U.S. nonfarm employment. >From the same report, the average hourly wage of all farmworkers in the U.S. (not just migrant laborers) is $5.94. This is actually higher that I expected, but you can get paid more to work for Burger King. And "just 5 percent reported being covered by employer provided health insurance." Also, "[h]ourly wage information over the ten-year period 1989 to 1998 demonstrates that the purchasing power of farm wages has been declining." The decline was "more than 10 percent.... During the same 1989 to 1998 period, the average farm wage dropped from 54 percent of that earned by production workers in the private, nonfarm sector to just 48 percent...." Also, "[p]aid holidays and/or paid vacations were provided to just 10 percent of all farmworkers." Again, you would be better off working full-time for Burger King. And with that amount of money and lack of benefits, only "21 percent of all farmworkers received free housing from their agricultural employers.... Virtually all farmworkers provided and paid for their own meals.... and 13 percent reported that toilets were not available while at work." In the final analysis, "one half of all individual farmworkers earned less than $7500 per year and one half of all farmworker families earned less than $10,000 per year." This does not sound like the kind of industry I'd work in if I could find any way possible to avoid it, even if that way involved using social services. And these people aren't receiving a whole lot in the way of social services either. Still from the same 61 page report: In 1997-98, just 17 percent of all farmworkers used needs-based services. Needs-based services include financial aid through programs such as temporary assistance to needy families (TANF), general assistance or welfare, and publicly provided housing or medical and nutritional assistance such as Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Food Stamps and Medicaid.... [U]se of needs-based services by this population was minimal. Just from anecdotal knowledge from around the Kansas City area, pay and to access to bathroom facilities are better in the construction industry, but it's still seasonal and weather-dependent work with long hours of back-breaking labor with little to no benefits and a paycheck only a little better than what you would get for flipping burgers. Reggie Bautista _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
