Working in the Shadows

Some people complain that immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans. I've never understood this. I've never had a job that I felt in danger of losing to an immigrant. Outsourcing to another country? Maybe. But it has always seemed to me that most immigrants are working in the jobs that most Americans don't want, like cleaning our homes and offices, working in food services, manual labor, etc. So Gabriel Thompson's new book Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do piqued my interest. Gabriel decides to investigate some of the jobs that are known for employing large numbers of immigrants. His experiences make for some very interesting, and even entertaining, reading.

He starts by traveling to Yuma, Arizona to find a job cutting lettuce. When he inquires about a job, he raises a few eyebrows. Wouldn't he rather have a job in the plant? Or as a supervisor? When he insists that he is looking for a job cutting lettuce, he is repeatedly told that it is a very difficult job. White people do not take these jobs. And the few who have, haven't lasted more than a few days. He persists and is finally given a job in the fields. It is extremely difficult, back-breaking labor. He consistently suffers from pain in his back, feet and hands. Most of the people on his team are not actually immigrants, but residents of Mexico who are guest workers. They cross the border each day to work and return home in the evenings. In the U.S., they are able to make about $8 an hour, whereas in Mexico they would be lucky to make $12 for an entire day's worth of work.

After enduring two months in the lettuce fields (an astonishing feat for a white person), he travels to Alabama, where he hopes to find employment in a chicken processing plant. He finds that immigrants make up about a third of the plant's employees. He specifically applies for a job deboning chickens, which is known to be done mostly by immigrants. Again, eyebrows raise. Wouldn't he like an easier job? Although he is hired, he never is put in the deboning department, but is given jobs separating and packing the meat. He finds it to be extremely repetitive and mind-numbing, as well as disgusting and painful. He works the night shift, which is also hard on his body, never adjusting to sleeping during the day. But while he goes home in the morning, many of his coworkers go on to second jobs or home to take care of their children. Despite having a full-time job, and sometimes two jobs, most of his coworkers, immigrants and Americans, are barely getting by.

Finally, he moves on to New York City, where he first takes a job in the flower district, unloading flowers and making deliveries. All of his coworkers are immigrants, many undocumented. They aren't paid even minimum wage or overtime and are not allowed breaks, but the workers will not complain for fear of losing their jobs or being reported. After a week, Gabriel is fired, most likely because he is less compliant and unquestioning than his immigrant coworkers. He then takes a job as a delivery person for a restaurant. What I didn't know is that many immigrants will pay $100-$200 to a "referral agency" to find jobs. These jobs are the least desirable positions and often pay less than minimum wage. It is common practice to not pay overtime to immigrant workers and Gabriel finds that many immigrants will quit rather than complain.

Although it was a completely unscientific study, it was very eye-opening. While Gabriel can't really say whether immigrants are taking away jobs from Americans, it seems to me that the jobs he attempted were jobs that only very desperate Americans were willing to do anyway. Most of the companies he approached for work did not understand why he wanted these particular jobs, and many immediately offered him better positions. Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, which I loved, gave me a new appreciation for the people who are trying to get by on minimum wage jobs, but Gabriel's experiences shed light on a whole other side of the American workforce that many of us know little about.