Thread: More illegal immigrant women taking nanny, housekeeper jobs

More illegal immigrant women taking nanny, housekeeper jobs
By David Crary - The Associated Press

HOUSTON --In the debate over immigration, they are virtually unheard, unseen: the hundreds of thousands of foreign-born women, many of them in the U.S. illegally, who toil in America's homes as nannies, cooks and housekeepers, changing diapers and scrubbing floors.

They are jobs of last resort for people whose other options are few.

The lucky ones earn decent wages, and build a promising future for their families.

The less fortunate, isolated and apprehensive, suffer a dismaying array of abuses from exploitively low wages to sexual harassment. Some are forced to sleep in closets; others are threatened with deportation if they complain about overwork.

"These people can be very, very vulnerable, particularly if they're not documented," said Sam Dunning, who oversees social justice programs for the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. "If there's any dispute over working conditions, they have very little recourse."

It is, in Dunning's words, a job sector in the shadows - generally excluded from state and federal labor protections.

Experts and activists agree the ranks of household workers are swelling - likely to more than 1 million - although tallying their exact numbers and regulating their workplaces is near-impossible. Employers commonly seek off-the-books arrangements, avoiding contributions toward Social Security or Medicare, and many undocumented women prefer working in the underground economy to minimize chances of deportation.

In one particularly grim case, a wealthy couple went on trial this week on New York's Long Island, on federal charges related to the alleged abuse of two Indonesian women brought to the United States as housekeepers. Prosecutors say the women were held as virtual slaves, beaten, and paid no wages except for $100 a month sent to relatives abroad.

In a few cities, activists have begun campaigns to organize domestic workers and raise awareness of their difficulties, but traditional labor tactics - collective bargaining, the threat of striking - are not feasible.

Working conditions were harsh enough to drive Tomasa Compean away from a housekeeping job in Houston that she'd held for 18 years. Over that span her pay edged up from $30 to $50 a day, but her assigned cleaning duties kept increasing and she felt pressured to work even when sick.

"They treated me poorly," Compean said of the couple who employed her. "They were always asking me to do more and more."

Compean, 58, quit and took up full-time work as an office janitor. Last year, she helped lead a strike by 5,300 newly unionized Houston janitors, mostly immigrant women, who won better wages and working conditions.

"Now, if any problem comes up, I can deal with it," said Compean, who came from Mexico 27 years ago. "But it would be very hard to organize domestic workers. People who work in the private houses are scared to even talk."

Hiring household help is no longer reserved for the rich. Many middle-class families now feel they can afford to tap the vast pool of immigrants willing to work for modest wages, and many career women rely on a housekeeper to do chores for which they no longer have the time or energy.

Many of the women filling the jobs are single mothers, supporting children they brought with them to the U.S. or left behind in their homeland.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/busine ... 46572.html

WAAAAAAAA What happened to raising your own damn kids and cleaning your own damn house? I do it. and if I did hire someone to take care of my child why the hell would I want a criminal to do it?

That's what I don't get. The only, brief, time I hired someone to mow my lawn, he was definitely an American like me. I also did my own housework, my sons mowed my lawn, etc. I've been working full time since '91 and that was still the case.

We have a group of Americans "falling through the cracks" replaced by more 'desirable' immigrants. E.g. Whatever happened to "Moderate Mammal" the guy with the janitorial business who could hardly hold on anymore against illegal competition? I haven't seen him post for quite awhile

The new class of businesspeople will not choose the overweight, the mentally slow, the homely...they don't want them around their kids! They would rather have the more normal immigrant, I guess. What a tragedy. A group of Americans shoved aside.

Working in constuction I see a similar trend. Nice people, who could do the work, shun it (or are met with hostility) and take a more civil occupation. The crass--but incompetent-- take over, and then use cheap illegal labor to bail themselves out of trouble. Now, our industry has been riding a sharp spike of actovity caused by low interest rates and manned with hordes of illegals, and is all set for a big crash.

It is, in Dunning's words, a job sector in the shadows - generally excluded from state and federal labor protections.

And the employer is not paying their portion of income taxes on the employee's wages.

Dixie

I have always wondered what kind of people would hire an illegal immigrant to care for their children. That has always been mindboggling.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

I have always wondered what kind of people would hire an illegal immigrant to care for their children. That has always been mindboggling.

I agree nntrixie. Why would you hire a ciminal to do the most important job in the world...which is to raise your children?

Very scary.

This is one of the reasons these people support illegal immigration. They need their cheap nannies, housekeepers, and gardeners. They break the law hiring them and cheat on their taxes to boot. Shame on them.