Citizens, illegal immigrants jostle for jobs
Hard times alter the debate over undocumented workers and their role in economy
By Kristin Collins - Staff Writer
Published: Sun, Mar. 15, 2009 12:30AM
Modified Sun, Mar. 15, 2009 03:59AM



Business owners once said they needed illegal workers because there weren't enough Americans willing to do dirty and lowly jobs. Now, unemployment is nearing 10 percent, and citizens are lining up for jobs they once would have rejected. Yet, some say, many employers still want illegal immigrants.

"They prefer immigrants, especially now," said James Lee, an electrician who hasn't found work since Thanksgiving. "I don't think it's fair when there's so many of us in the shape we're in now."

Lee, 47, said American workers can't compete against immigrants who are willing to work for low pay and under unreasonable conditions. And now that jobs are scarce -- nearly a quarter of construction workers nationwide are unemployed -- Lee is one of a growing chorus who say that illegal immigrants are leaving citizen workers with fewer options.


Here are the national unemployment rates for February among different ethnic groups.

Blacks: 13.4 percent

High school dropouts: 12.6 percent

Hispanics: 10.9 percent

High school graduates: 8.3 percent

Whites: 7.3 percent

College graduates: 4.1 percent

U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS


"It's just more people out there competing for what little work there is," said Franklin Tigner, a Louisburg construction subcontractor who was searching for a job last week.

Such concerns prompted legislative action. More than two dozen state lawmakers proposed a bill this month that would require North Carolina companies getting federal stimulus money to verify that their workers are in the country legally. They say the $787 billion plan should benefit U.S. citizens.

"With unemployment in North Carolina approaching 10 percent, with the layoffs we've seen, we have plenty of Americans who need those jobs," said Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican who is one of the bill's co-sponsors.

Some, however, argue that the equation is not so simple.

Immigrants don't just fill jobs; they also create them by buying cars, groceries, homes and services.

"If they weren't here, I'd have less people employed here, no question about that," said Durham car dealer Kyle Ollis, who sells about a third of his cars to Hispanic customers.

And many business owners say that the vast supply of dependable labor that immigrants provided was responsible for much of the growth in industries such as construction and landscaping. Without immigrant labor, they say, their companies couldn't have created so many jobs in North Carolina.

Now, in a time of shrinking profits, some say those productive and loyal workers could mean the difference between survival and failure.

Bill Downey, a Durham construction company owner, said immigrants have been willing to work harder and more reliably than native workers -- and those are the types of workers that employers will keep as they try to remain solvent in a tight market. He said he doesn't employ illegal immigrants, but he acknowledged that many laborers are in the country illegally.

"When it comes down to the bottom line, more people are going to be interested in good workers than whether they're legal," Downey said. "I've got a good worker, and I'm going to send him away? I don't see that happening."

Some workers, immigrant and native alike, say that illegal immigrants have earned their place in the American economy, in good times and bad.

"We have been taking care of work that people don't want to do," said Carlos Reyes, a legal U.S. resident from Honduras who runs a Raleigh painting business. "Now you want to throw us away? That's not fair."

A surplus of labor

An estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants poured into North Carolina in the past decade, lured by plentiful jobs in construction, landscaping, manufacturing and hospitality. Now, those industries are taking the brunt of the recession, and there is a growing surplus of low-skilled workers.
kristin.collins@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4881

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