Thread: Many Immigrants Struggling As Construction Jobs Vanish

Many Immigrants Struggling As Construction Jobs Vanish'

By MICHAEL SASSO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 11, 2008

Updated: 03/10/2008 11:13 am

WIMAUMA - Ramon De La Rosa couldn't be more of an optimist. He sprinkles "thanks to God" into every conversation and, during a short interview, broke into a boxer's pose three times to illustrate his never-say-die attitude.

But these days, his optimism - indeed, the spirit of thousands of Hispanic construction workers - is being put to the test.

De La Rosa's painting and drywall business is just surviving at the moment, he says, operating at perhaps 20 percent of its capacity. Where he had 15 workers a couple of years ago, today it's just himself, his wife and three employees.

Three of his former crew left to look for work in North Carolina. Two went to Texas. At least a couple returned to their native Mexico, he says.

Still, De La Rosa counts himself lucky for having any work at all. Growing up in Mexico, his mother occasionally had nothing to feed him and his three sisters other than sugar water, he says.

"I was surviving on less in Mexico," said the 44-year-old from Fort Meade, who immigrated to Florida 10 years ago.

Construction workers of all ethnicities are hurting during the housing slump, but Hispanic workers appear to be suffering more than most. In recent years, Hispanic immigrants flooded into the construction industry to capitalize on the housing boom. Some, like De La Rosa, are U.S. citizens, speak at least a little English, and thus might find work in other industries. But those here illegally have fewer work prospects.

Citizenship hardly mattered in the good times, immigrant laborers and advocates interviewed said. Contractors needed so many workers they sometimes overlooked an immigrants' legal status or didn't verify immigration documents.

If a worker didn't speak English, it wasn't a big deal, either. If an employer was looking to hire seven or eight laborers and even one could speak English, he could translate for everyone else, said Carmen Brown, who manages an Able Body Labor day labor business in Gibsonton. Today, instead of hiring seven or eight people at a time, contractors are coming for just two or three. If none of them speak English, they all lose out, Brown said.

'There Used To Be Enough Work'

In the past, immigrants in Wimauma could fall back on the area's chief business, agriculture. But finding new work in that industry has become problematic. The tomato season was relatively poor this year, and many tomato and strawberry fields and orange groves were plowed over in recent years to make way for housing subdivisions.

For the forgotten immigrants who lay the Tampa Bay area's shingles, install its drywall or stack its cinder blocks, housing's rebound can't come soon enough.

"I have never asked my congregation, 'Do you have work?,' because there used to be enough work in Wimauma," said the Rev. Demetrio Lorden, a Catholic priest who leads the primarily Hispanic congregation at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Wimauma. "Now, one of the first things I ask is, 'Do you have work?'"

How many immigrant construction workers live or work in the Bay area is impossible to know, because many of them are undocumented - or "live in the shadows" in the words of the Rev. Bill Cruz Sr., who operates the Good Samaritan Mission in Wimauma.

According to estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, at least 28 percent of workers in construction and mining in 2006 were foreign born. The report doesn't estimate how many were undocumented. A March 2007 report from the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 29.9 percent of all recently arrived foreign-born Hispanics worked in construction in 2006.

Better Income, Conditions

For many, construction was more than just an occupation. It allowed them to escape the backbreaking kneeling, stooping and constant relocating of migrant farm work.

Rosalva Serrano, 30, arrived in the United States as an infant from the Mexican state of Michoacan and spent her childhood working in the tomato and strawberry fields of Wimauma, and the apple orchards and cucumber fields of Ohio. But by the late 1990s, the family had stopped moving. Her husband, Arnulfo, landed a job with a road construction company in the Bay area. Later, someone offered to teach him the roofing business, a hot, intense trade popular with immigrants.

The money was good. He was making 50 percent more than he made in the fields, and it allowed the family to stay put in Wimauma rather than following the crop cycles, Rosalva Serrano said. She landed a job helping immigrants find work with the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance. A U.S. citizen, she has since started working at the Beth-El Farmworker Ministry mission in Wimauma. Her husband's brother, Rafael, joined Arnulfo in roofing.

"I was going from $5 to $10 an hour," said Rafael Serrano, who has a green card. "And Americans, they don't even want to work for $10 an hour."

The Serranos' mobile home in Wimauma is modest, but has the trappings of modern American life. A big-screen TV dominates the living room alongside a portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On the wall is a framed picture of Rafael and his Wimauma soccer team, most of whom are fellow roofers.

Money is tight now. By the end of last year, Arnulfo Serrano was working as few as 15 hours a week and he started picking tomatoes again, although his roofing job has picked up some since then. Rafael still is working about 37 hours a week, but for far less money. He estimates he is making $450 a week now, where he was earning $1,000 a week a couple of years ago.

He is living with his brother and sister-in-law for the time being.

Seeing The Effects

Like the Serranos, many Hispanic construction workers are still working, but they're working fewer hours, working for less money or moving out of state. To save money, many families are doubling up in small mobile homes or apartments, immigrant advocates say.

Among the fallout from the housing downturn are:

•Money flowing to Mexico has flattened. During the housing boom "remittances" - money that workers send to relatives in their native country - surged in Mexico.

These remittances grew at an annual rate of 17 percent to 23 percent between 2003 and 2006, nearly doubling to $23.7 billion during that time period. However, that stellar growth slowed dramatically last year. Remittances rose only $237 million, or about 1 percent, last year compared with 2006, according to Banco de Mexico, Mexico's central bank.

Walter Molano, an economist who studies Latin American economies for BCP Securities of Greenwich, Conn., said much of the growth in remittances earlier this decade was made possible by the housing boom. He expects remittances to fall this year.

•Immigrants are leaving the country. For the first time, said Sarasota immigration lawyer Victoria Karins, immigrants want to return to their native countries. Many are South American and work in Florida's construction business. She doesn't see many Mexican immigrants, she thinks because many of them travel throughout the United States to find work instead of looking to leave the country.

South American immigrants "call me up and say, 'How can I go to my country and not lose my green card?'" Karins said. "For the first time ever, I'm finding that to make a life for themselves, the United States is not what they're choosing."

•More immigrants are seeking assistance. At the Good Samaritan Mission, aid workers used to help about 100 families a week, providing them with food, clothing, education and spiritual nurturing. Nowadays, as many as 500 families will show up at the Wimauma mission seeking help, said Cruz, who operates the mission.

Despite the growing need, the mission has fewer resources because donors are cutting back their giving as the economy worsens. In a typical year, the mission sees a surge in donations in November and December. That influx of money helps the mission operate for the first few months of the year. But this year, the normal holiday giving was so slow that the mission was running in the red before the end of January, Cruz said.

De La Rosa and his small crew of painters and drywall installers are getting by the "old-fashioned way," De La Rosa says.

He and his crew live in rural southern Polk County.

He raises pigs, cows and chickens on his spread of land, and they raise chickens on theirs. On occasion, he will slaughter a pig, invite his workers over and have a feast along with his wife and two teenage children. His crew, in turn, will share their hens' eggs.

De La Rosa refers to his general contractor, Highland Homes of Lakeland, as his "angel" for continuing to give him work despite the severe housing slowdown.

"If I can have water and sugar, I can survive. Anything above that is successful," he said.

Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso contributed to this report. Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at or msasso@tampatrib.com.http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar...truction-jobs/

Rosalva Serrano, 30, arrived in the United States as an infant from the Mexican state of Michoacan and spent her childhood working in the tomato and strawberry fields of Wimauma, and the apple orchards and cucumber fields of Ohio. But by the late 1990s, the family had stopped moving. Her husband, Arnulfo, landed a job with a road construction company in the Bay area. Later, someone offered to teach him the roofing business, a hot, intense trade popular with immigrants

The jobs Americans won't do? Seems to me nobody really wants to work in the fields. They think giving amnesty will solve all of the agriculture problems. Get real working in the fields is just a stepping stone for everyone. The farmers should mechanize and we should close our borders.

If they do not go back, the already overburdened social services will soon
collapse as the economy nose dives.


De La Rosa and his small crew of painters and drywall installers are getting by the "old-fashioned way,"

Unsold new homes are being stripped of everything of value

Construction workers of all ethnicities are hurting during the housing slump, but Hispanic workers appear to be suffering more than most. In recent years, Hispanic immigrants flooded into the construction industry to capitalize on the housing boom. Some, like De La Rosa, are U.S. citizens, speak at least a little English, and thus might find work in other industries. But those here illegally have fewer work prospects.

Really? Tell me, what country is the American Citizen supposed to run back to when times are tough? What's his prospects?