The Day Labor Market in Phoenix, Arizona
Introduction
This paper focuses on the Macehualli Day Labor Union located in Phoenix, Arizona in
the 85032 area.
Throughout the history of the United States, illegal immigrants have come from
all over the world to find work and a better way of life. It is estimated that right now
there are about seven million illegal aliens living in America. About 69% of these illegal
immigrants are Mexican and over 283,000 of them live in Arizona1. In this paper, we
presuppose that the illegal aliens we refer to are Mexican. This is because the aliens
living in the geographic area around the day labor center we examine are over 99%
Mexican (Reza, 2003, personal interview).
Many Mexicans risk everything they have, including their lives, in their attempts
to cross the border and live the “American Dream.” Most immigrants are motivated by
the lure of lucrative employment across the border. They come to this country with the
hope of finding a higher paying job. In most cases, the immigrants are young men who
leave their families behind, but intend to earn enough money to eventually bring their
loved ones across (Reza, 2003, personal interview).
Over the past three decades, the influx of illegal immigrants has become even
more noticeable (Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1999). In the year 2000,
unauthorized immigrants accounted for about 2.5% of the U.S. population2. These
immigrants’ illegal status is a serious obstacle in their search for employment. Almost all
employers require some proof of United States citizenship. For citizens and legal
immigrants, this is easily established through a driver’s license or state identification
card. Illegal workers, on the other hand, obvi...
... middle of paper ...
.... 11 Jun. 2003.
Day Labor Union Workers. Personal Interview. 25 Oct. 2003
Gonzalez, Daniel. “Future Will Require Immigrants by Millions for Jobs, Report
Says.” The Arizona Republic 31 Aug. 2003 : A6.
Reza, Salvador (Director of the Macehualli Day Labor Union). Personal
Interview. 25 Oct. 2003.
Smart pages. 2 Dec. 2003 < ttp://www.smartpages.com/>
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Estimates of the Unauthorized
Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: 1999 to 2000” 2 Dec. 2003
.
U.S. Department of Labor. 2 Dec. 2003 minimumwage.htm>. Valenzuela, Abel Jr. “Day Labourers as Entrepreneurs?” Journal of Ethnic and
Migration Studies 27.2 (2001) : 335-352
Valenzuela, Abel Jr. “Day Labor Work” Annual Review of Sociology 29
(2003) : 307-33
either be because they want to get away from the violence going on in their country, or because
The United States was formed by the immigration of many people from all over the world. Americans take pride in knowing that we are a people of vast ethnic backgrounds and culture. However, at the present time, the flow of illegal immigration, as well as a large influx of other legal immigrants is placing a strain on our land of "huddled masses." Legal immigration to the United States can easily be handled and is welcomed by most Americans. However, the flow of illegal immigrants, especially from Mexico, must be stemmed, due to the strain it is placing on the government, (at the local, state and federal level), as well as the general population. Illegal immigrants are costing the United States over 24 billion dollars a year in taxpayers money (National Review 12.13.93). Something must be done to reduce the flow of illegal immigration into the United States. The focus of this paper will be the problems caused by and possible solutions to the problem of illegal immigration.
With the difficulties and the dangers of migrating are big, people are willing to risk their lives in order to reach the American Dream. People dream of making it to the US and having a big luxurious life when in reality all the jobs they can get is working in the fields and or factories. They discrimination they are going to face because how they look and speak, the idea that they may never make it to the top unless they go back to school and get a degree. The harsh realities with being an immigrant in the United States is big, always having to worry about ICE, or losing a job, this constant fear of being deported. In every society there is hegemonic society that prevails over everyone else and controls everything and everyone. In a country that strives to for every person to be equal is a myth, we live in a world were only the rich will prosper and the poor will get
of entry, and the INS each year apprehends over 1.3 million aliens at or near
...to provide their children a better future; some of them end up here because of human trafficking or smuggling, so they need to work hard to pay their debt. No matter what the reason is, they can't afford to lose their job or be deported back to their own country. Most of these illegal immigrants are carrying too much weight on their shoulders. Most problems are not big deals comparing to lose a job, because they believe that as long as they can keep their jobs for living in this country, there is a hope to become legal one day.
The change in demographics in Mexico is labeled as one of the larger reasons for the increased number of immigrants coming to the United States from Mexico. Ojeda cites that, over the past forty years, one-third of the immigrants come due to high birth rates in Mexico. Howe...
Immigrants must overcome many barriers to succeed in America. First, migrants frequently must learn a new language. Inability to communicate is a critical barrier for accessing the health care system (Urrutia-Rojas, Marshall, Trevino, Lurie, & Minguia-Bayona, 2006). Second, the processes of work and schooling for themselves and their families can be daunting. Lastly, immigrants use the established social network of longer duration residents for reference and knowledge (Nandi, Galea, Lopez, Nandi, Strongarone, & Ompad, 2008). For purposes of this report, there are three different types of immigrant: legal, undocumented, and refugees or persons seeking asylum. All three types of residents want to succeed and achieve their personal dream.
Immigrants come to America to seek a better life and receive a better education. America
Immigrants came to the United States for different reasons, but Laskin stated the three main reasons were “land, freedom, and hope.” (9) If they immigrated to the United States, they could experience what other immigrants sent letters home about. Most immigrants traveled to the new world with expectations
Mexican immigrant's that migrated to the United States from Mexico was at nearly half million
The immigrants believe that by migrating to a different country they have a better chance to succeed I life, they want to better themselves and their families. The three theories of why people migrate are great explanations to the situation. But, I think the theory that makes the most sense is the push pull theory. The push pull theory is the main idea of the other two theories; it seems to have information about the other theories. It provides an overall picture of why people migrate from their home. The push pull theory provides explanations of the factors that contribute to a person migrating to a different country. They all have their own situations that they are going through and their own motivates for wanting a better life. In the end, I think that’s what everybody wants, to just have a place you can call home and where you do not have to worry about not having bread on the table. That’s all they want to do. They want to provide them a better opportunity for a better
trafficked across United States borders. It is said that at any given time there are an estimated
How this many undocumented immigrants live here is a little hazy because of our rigorous laws. There are two different types of illegal immigrants and knowing these two distinctively different types of illegal immigrants is of great importance. The first, are immigrants that travel to our country legally with a visa or green card but stay as their visas become expired. The other illegal immigrant is when a person illegally trespasses our border without asking for permission from the government and lives here. The first type of Immigrants are much easier to track and incarcerate because of the fact that the government already knows that they are in the country. However, the second type of illegal immigrant is much more difficult to find because the government is unaware of their
First of all, I want to explain what the immigrants are. By “Immigration Assist” website, Immigrants are people who have citizenship in one country; however, they go to another country to establish a permanent residence.
Illegal Immigration can occur for various reasons but one of the main causes over years has been civil wars which made people cross borders of other countries. One more factor can be poverty where people migrate from other countries legally or illegally to higher paid jobs, better living conditions and one of the main examples of these are thousands of people who apply for H1-B (highly skilled workers) every year to legally work for a company in America. Another factor could be persecution in their own country for person’s wrong doing in religious or political beliefs and fleeing to adjacent country to take sanctuary. According to Anderson, immigrants come to America from neighboring countries especially Mexico to benefit fr...