an hour. During some of the time that Rodolfo worked at Star, he also worked at the Elks Club part-time as a janitor. The Elks Club paid $4.50 an hour. Rodolfo’s brother worked at the Elks Club for eleven years as a janitor. His brother got the job through a friend. His brother was looking for work by applying to businesses near his family’s residence. One day when he was visiting various businesses, he saw a friend working outside the Elks Club building and asked him if he would help him submit his application. Rodolfo’s brother stopped working at the Elks Club because he wanted to make more money. He now works in a pet food business, and got that job through Rodolfo. Rodolfo was working at the Discount Club and one of his coworkers was the son of the owner of the pet food business. Rodolfo asked his friend to help his brother get a job there.
5. Rodolfo got a job at Splashmaster, a swimming pool company, through a different sister who was working there. Apparently she found out that they needed someone to cut pipes, and she told him to apply. Rodolfo also left Splashmaster because of the low pay (about $100 per week).
6. For a while, Rodolfo worked for an industrial janitorial service as an employee (as opposed to an independent contractor). He only stayed for two months because it was “a heavy job.” The hours were very long, he had to operate heavy machinery, and he was paid $4.50 an hour.
7. Rodolfo got his job with the Discount Club through an uncle who was working there (the same one who was working for Le Lumiere). His uncle told Rodolfo that they were looking for janitors. He applied and got the job. He worked there steadily and once received the Employee of the Month award. He got bonuses every month. As a steady employee, he accumulated vacation and sick leave time, and also donated money to the United Way through regular payroll deductions (he also does that at his current place of employment). He started at $5.85 an hour and when he left was receiving $7.66 an hour. During his time at the Discount Club, Rodolfo also worked a second job, about two or three hours a day, at Sandwood Market. He was a stock boy and bagger and was in charge of reloading the soft drink machine and carrying out bottles. Unfortunately, Rodolfo injured his back on the job at the Discount Club, because of heavy lifting and running a large floor scrubbing machine. He received disability compensation for two years, and is now working at a less strenuous job. Rodolfo was a well-regarded employee at the Discount Club. At his deportation hearing, his supervisor submitted a letter of support.
8. Rodolfo got his current job at Star Products, where he is a machine operator assembling electronic and computer parts, through his sister-in-law who works there. She encouraged him to apply for the job and put in a good word for him. When he first started working at Star Products he was working on the assembly line, putting together electronic parts. One Saturday he was asked if he would be able to work overtime in another department where workers operated machines and conducted much more complex and detailed work. Based on his performance that day, the supervisor of the department took Rodolfo off the assembly lines and added him permanently to the machine operator department. This job entailed more responsibility and required extensive training. Today he operates delicate machinery that assembles wiring and other computer and electronics parts, and earns a higher wage than he did in his previous position. Some months ago, Rodolfo had to be hospitalized for a hernia. Company officials valued and trusted him enough to lend him $1,000 for his medical bills. He repaid the entire amount within four months. He’s been there almost one year and is paid $5.00 an hour.
Except for his injury at the Discount Club, Rodolfo’s primary reason for leaving jobs has been a desire to earn more money or because a new and better opportunity presented itself. After working long days—sometimes sixteen hours—and discovering at the end of the week that his earnings totaled under $300, he looked for better opportunities. Through his network of friends and relatives, he kept his eyes and ears open for any available opportunities, either for himself or for others.
As an ambitious and independent person, Rodolfo has demonstrated entrepreneurial skills as well. When he was on disability, he was quite concerned that he would be unable to make a living. He approached his father and proposed that they work together to make extra money. Since his father is an excellent mechanic, they bought and fixed used cars, and then sold the cars for a profit. For example, they bought one truck body for $300, and after they had fixed it, sold it for $4,000. At his father’s suggestion, Rodolfo also moved back in with the family during his recovery so that Rodolfo could cut down on living expenses. Today Rodolfo’s father continues to buy and repair used cars, but Rodolfo cannot help him because he is busy with his job at Star Products and with setting up his business.
Rodolfo has made an agreement with the president of Star Products about becoming an independent contractor to provide the company with janitorial services. The way this came about is that Rodolfo noticed that the president often complained about the regular janitorial service. Apparently, they are very sloppy in their work, sometimes leaving the offices in a worse state than when they arrived. Rodolfo started picking up after them because he thought that the mess they left reflected poorly on the company. Customers frequent this establishment and he believed that it was important to have a clean work environment. Eventually the president noticed and suggested that he contract with the company independently to clean the place up after-hours. Rodolfo took this suggestion seriously and decided that this would be an important business opportunity for himself and his family.
Since he spoke with the president of the company, he has been slowly buying pieces of cleaning equipment, some costing as much as $1,600. Initially Rodolfo plans to work his regular day hours at the company and then have his wife help him clean the Star Products facilities at night. He figures that the president of Star Products has other business connections that Rodolfo’s business can benefit from. In time, he hopes to expand his business with these connections and looks forward to owning his own business. He has thought out, planned, and negotiated all the details very carefully. At first, he will be working on a probationary basis in order to allow his employer to examine his work to make sure it is satisfactory. During this time, the president has agreed to pay him a regular wage (as if he were doing his regular job), but at an overtime rate. After one month, if his work is satisfactory, he will go on contract status and finally be independent. He will be securing a worker’s compensation package for himself and his wife, and he has applied for a business license. He learned what he needed to do to start his independent janitorial contract business by helping and observing a friend who owns his own janitorial contracting service. He helped his friend finish jobs out of friendship and without compensation. Now this friend is advising Rodolfo and helping him start his own business.
Allegations about the economic “impact” of immigrants brings to mind acquaintances and former clients like Rodolfo and his family. They are not representative of all immigrants. But they are also not atypical. Most of my Mexican clients have been more like Rodolfo than unlike him. They defy the stereotype of the poor immigrant lured across the border by the ease of life on welfare. They are hardworking, honest, very family oriented, and not criminals. As Rodolfo’s job history reveals, they may take low-paying jobs, but they keep an eye open for better-paying positions. The twin economic arguments—job and wage displacement, and net fiscal burdens in the public sector—appear to involve contradictory stereotypes of the hardworking immigrant willing to take any job, and the pathologically welfare-dependent or costly immigrant.
Anticipating that some will be skeptical of an anecdotal approach centered around the experiences of one individual, I now turn to hard economic realities.
chapter 4 Searching for the Truth about Immigrants and Jobs
We are young and we come to the United States to work. And [using government services] looks bad. If I know I can pay my doctor, I don’t need to go to the government. I don’t need food stamps. That’s for the old people, for the children that don’t have no fathers. I don’t feel good if I go over there and I can be working. You can find a job in the United States anywhere you go. Especially if you can speak a little bit of English. If you don’t speak no English, you get your green card. If you don’t get your green card, you work in the fields,
