Thread: Abundance of jobs attract immigrants

Abundance of jobs attract immigrants to Lake County





By Ryan Pagelow rpagelow@scn1.com

The root of immigration is jobs.

Immigrants want them and businesses need to fill them.

Immigrants, primarily from Mexico, are attracted to Lake County for the abundance of unskilled jobs available in factories and warehouses that need workers willing to work for minimum wage or only a few bucks more.

"When they give me a tour, nearly all of them are Hispanic," said Carolina Duque, who connects immigrants to factory and employment agency jobs at the Mano a Mano Family Resource Center in Round Lake Park.

The majority of immigrants that come to her looking for work speak little or no English and apply for positions that earn about $6.50 an hour.

"For most of the positions they don't need to speak English. They stand assembling parts," Duque said. "If they do need to speak English they pay a little more."

The organization encourages them to learn the language and offers English as a second language classes.

Silvia Marquez, who worked for human relations at AppleOne staffing agency for a factory in Vernon Hills, said about 80 percent of the people she hired were Hispanic, many of them immigrants. She recently started working in human relations at another Lake County factory and said there too Hispanics make up the vast majority of employees.

"They're our best people. That's why people hire them. They don't complain. They do what they have to do," she said.

The number of foreign born residents in Lake County increased by 31.9 percent between 2000 and 2005. They now make up about 18.7 percent of the Lake County population, according to a new study by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The number of immigrants in the suburbs now doubles those in Chicago.

"The great majority of the job creation has been in the suburbs outside of Chicago," said Rob Paral, a research fellow with the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame that authored the study. More affordable housing costs in the suburbs also attract immigrants, he said.

Unions are taking notice. The fastest growing segment of the Service Employees International Union, which includes janitors and security officers, are Spanish-speaking who make up about 36 percent of the 42,000 members in Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri, said Marrianne McMullen spokesperson for the SEIU. The next largest immigrant groups speak Polish and Serbo-Croatian at 7 percent each.

"The Spanish-speaking group has risen dramatically in the last 10 years," said McMullen.

The union has encouraged members to participate in the recent marches for immigration reform and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and even rented buses to transport members from Waukegan to the marches. It has also educated non-immigrant members why it's in their best interest to stand-up for immigrant rights.

"If employers can exploit immigrants it lowers the standards for all working people, particularly blue collar working people," McMullen said. "We have such a strong history of immigrants being a dominant group in this. I can't imagine any anti-immigrant backlash."

Like earlier waves of immigrants before them, family and friends from the same towns back home help each other find jobs. One Libertyville factory has about 100 members from the small Mexican town of Tonatico on staff, said Miguel Arizmendi of Waukegan and a member of the Club Social Tonatico.

Teresa Brito's sister Alejandra helped her get a job at McDonalds in Waukegan 13 years ago. At one time they had four family members working at the restaurant.

"It opens doors," Brito said.

Immigrants with advanced degrees in their home countries have to start over when they come to the United States because the degrees don't transfer or they speak limited English.

Celina Rodriguez immigrated to Round Lake Heights two years ago from El Salvador with her U.S. citizen husband. In El Salvador she was an administrative supervisor at one of the biggest banks in El Salvador. Limited English has been her biggest disadvantage.

"I know people that have a degree and have to make due as laborers. For a professional person it's frustrating and at the same time motivating," Rodriguez said.

She's been studying at the College of Lake County to earn a certificate in office administration.

"Really it's to have a small key to open some doors. We have to start over again," she said. "Little by little we reach our goals."

09/04/06

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http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... S10904.htm

Immigrants, primarily from Mexico,

Dont they mean illegal. Why dont they fill these positions with immigrants that are on waiting list to become legal.

This article is from my local paper. I was going to post it too!! This reporter continues to write pro-immigrant articles. When there is a campaign to email certain reporters I'd like his name to be included!!