Executive Voices
Hispanics
Illegal aliens or believers in
the most fundamental law of economics?
By Dr. H. Nolo Martinez
From
the Census 2000 data we learned our state is not only more diverse
than it was 10 years ago, but also that recent immigrants have made
tremendous contributions to the communities where they settle in North
Carolina. The influx of immigrants workers into the metropolitan areas
of Charlotte, the Triangle, and the Triad area have done more to help
revitalize neighborhoods than any government program. Many of our
rural counties experiencing graying and consequent retirement of their
workforce continue to benefit from Latino immigration, particularly
for blue-collar jobs that require manual labor but not necessarily an
English-speaking tongue.
The 1990 census counted 79,000 Latinos in the Tar Heel State. Ten
years later, the state’s Latino population increased 394 percent to
378,963. North Carolina leads the country in the percentage growth of
its Mexican population, an increase of 655 percent, far ahead of
second-place Georgia and Tennessee, which was third. Over the next 50
years Hispanics population is expected to increase 238 percent.
Current demographics also reveal that over the next 20 to 30 years a
large percentage of the current workforce in N.C. will retire.
Over the years the United States has been called a nation of
immigrants. We are also a nation of laws. Parts of our legal system
are designed to support the economic law of supply and demand. By and
large, the current U.S. immigration system also supports the law of
supply and demand for all but one type of worker — the essential
worker.
An essential worker is the unskilled and semi-skilled worker employed
in all sectors of our economy. Essential workers include restaurant
workers, retail clerks, construction trades people, manufacturing line
workers, hotel service workers, food production workers, landscape
workers and health care aides. These individuals often work in the
jobs that many Americans do not choose, but which are essential to
keep our economy and our country growing.
Most essential workers in N.C. are Latino immigrants. For example,
according to the state Employment Security Commission, 75 percent of
construction workers in metropolitan counties are Hispanics, as are
more than 95 percent of Mexican guestworkers in agriculture and more
than 50 percent of those working in meat processing plants.
Even with the recent slowdown of the economy, the employers of
essential workers are still looking for employees. The service,
retail, construction, health services and other similar industries all
gained jobs while the high-tech and manufacturing sectors were laying
off employees. However, it appears that these workers are finding
other employment quickly, while essential worker employers are still
begging for applicants.
President George W. Bush long has recognized the disconnect between
economic reality (supply and demand) for essential workers, on the one
hand, and the U.S. immigration system, on the other. It was this
realization that brought him and President Vicente Fox of Mexico to
the brink of an historic agreement on trans-border migration issues.
Unfortunately, the events of Sept. 11 have delayed the discussions but
issues of economic reality will bring speed to these discussions.
Mexico’s economy is the largest in Latin America and is the United
States’ second-largest trading partner after Canada. Mexico’s
imports from the U.S. are the equivalent of more than $175 billion,
more than Germany, Italy, Spain and France combined.
The problem of illegal immigration in the U.S. has been a recurring
one since the introduction of restriction policies in 1954. The
illegal alien problem is largely a creation of government. An unknown
number of these people simply work alongside other immigrants or
American workers under exactly the same working conditions.
Significantly, their employers most likely withhold all the same
payroll taxes as for any other employee.
There are revealing contributions of undocumented-essential workers to
the U.S. economy. When the Social Security Administration collects
payroll taxes for someone for whom a valid Social Security number
cannot be found, these earnings go into a “suspense file.” Since
1937, this file has collected $265 billion in wages and, the report
says, the file has grown $17 billion annually since 1990. This makes a
good case that those workers that many like to call illegal aliens are
really undocumented taxpayers.
Regulating the presence of undocumented
but essential workers in N.C. would bring all of those people
into the mainstream economy, where they would be less vulnerable to
economic and civil exploitation. Legalization would also help reduce
the resentment of many who complain about paying for public services
like schools and hospitals that serve the families of
“non-taxpaying” undocumented workers because they would be treated
like everyone else.
Even when the economy is not growing, the ambition and energy of the
immigrants can fuel the state’s economy. Far from taking jobs, the
newcomers have and will create jobs for themselves and other that
simply would not have existed without the migration. How many North
Carolinians intend to start a Puerto Rican restaurant, an Aztec gift
shop, or a 24/7-taxi bilingual service in rural counties?
The federal government sets the policies that determine how many and
which immigrant enters the U.S. We cannot continue to accept the
benefit of the labor of essential workers while supporting an
immigration system that treats them as if they do not exist. Many
essential workers and those employers that hire them have clearly
violated the U.S. immigration laws, however, these workers have obeyed
one of the most powerful laws of all: the law of supply and demand.
Dr. H. Nolo Maartinez is director of Hispanic/Latino Affairs in the
Office of the Governor and a faculty member at N.C. State University
in Raleigh.
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