http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/local ... eid=102340
Passport to problems
By Liz Mineo / Daily News Staff
Sunday, June 26, 2005
If you think America is tough on illegal immigrants, don't get caught in Australia.
An illegal worker Down Under faces a $10,000 fine and immediate deportation.
In Brazil, you have eight days to leave and your employer is criminally sued.
In Ireland, illegal workers are arrested, fined up to $3,600, jailed and ultimately deported.
A survey among six foreign consulates in the United States conducted by the Daily News shows that illegal workers in Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Ireland, England and France face a myriad of penalties -- all tougher than ours.
In Mexico, someone who is caught working illegally is subject to deportation and could be banned from re-entering the country. That U.S. citizens are deported from Mexico is not a rare occurrence, said Deputy Consul Rodrigo Marquez at the Mexican Consulate in Boston.
"There are one million of Americans in Mexico," said Marquez. "Some of them may be doing something without authorization."
In Australia, which has some of the world's strictest immigration laws, illegal workers have their visas canceled and can also be fined up to $10,000. Employers who hire illegal immigrants can also be fined up to $10,000.
In Ireland, someone found guilty of working illegally is liable to be fined up to 3,000 euros or a prison term of up to 12 months or both. Employers who hire illegal workers can be fined up to 250,000 euros or a prison term of up to 10 years, or both, said Christina McElwaine, spokesperson for the Irish Consulate in New York.
Something similar happens if someone is caught working illegally in England. British employers who hire people without working permits can face unlimited fines if they're tried in certain courts.
In France, regulations are also harsh for illegal workers and employers who hire them. Due to the combination of a high unemployment rate and strict laws ordering employers to notify authorities when they hire new employers, it's hard for someone to work illegally in France.
"There isn't a police officer pursuing each person who is working illegally in France," said Jean-Francois Laborie, vice-consul of the Consulate of France in Boston. "But our regulations are very strict. It's more difficult to work without papers in France than in England or the United States."
Passport to problems
Foreign workers in all those countries need a permit issued by the Labor Department of each country. Employers have to apply for those permits before the workers arrive in the country of their choice, and they have to prove that those workers are the only ones fitted for the job.
Having employers take care of all the paperwork required to work overseas made sense for Lili Rossi, 28, who worked in Mozambique between 1999 and 2000 teaching English as a Second Language to elementary school students through the U.S. Peace Corps.
"It's easier to get a job through an organization," said Rossi, who teaches ESL at the Framingham Civic League. "There is a guaranteed job and the employer takes care of the paperwork."
Christine Taylor, who directs the Framingham ESL Plus Program, had a similar experience when she worked in Venezuela between 1979 and 1982 and in Germany between 1982 and 1984. She taught English to elementary school students in both countries.
"The schools that hired me did everything for me," she said. "The paperwork could be very confusing and overwhelming when you don't know the language."
But for many illegal immigrants who work and live in the United States, the lack of English skills doesn't prevent them from coming here. The availability of jobs and the weak enforcement of immigration regulations in the United States help draw illegal workers here, said immigration experts.
"U.S. immigration controls are very intense at the border, but very thin internally, compared to Europe," said Peter Andreas, a professor of political science and international studies at Brown University. "The United States doesn't have a national identity card or any real serious workplace enforcement. It puts a lot of effort on the border, but it's not terribly successful
There are between 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, which represents a higher proportion than what France or Australia have. There are between 200,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants in France, a nation of 60 million, and nearly 60,000 in Australia, a nation of 20 million.
