http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/thew
Between 1990 and 2001, 16 million new workers joined the American workforce. Of the new male workers, how many were immigrants who arrived during those years?
8 out of 10 new male workers in the last decade were immigrants who arrived during that time. According to a report on 2000 Census data, "The nation's entire male labor force would have grown only marginally over the last decade, and male labor shortages would likely have been widespread" had it not been for immigrants.
The 1990 Census reported that 26% of native born U.S. citizens, ages 15-64, were on welfare. In the same age group, what percentage of immigrants were welfare recipients?
20% of immigrants received some form of state or federal assistnace of welfare, 6% fewer than native-born citizens. Immigrants who become U.S. citizens also typically pay more in taxes than do native-born Americans - an average of $6,580 compared with $5,070.
On a daily basis, at least 200,000 day laborers are dispatched from day labor agencies (not including the informal hiring that occurs on street corners). At the largest day labor agency in the country, what are the chances of a worker sustaining an injury on any given day?
25% of workers at the largest day labor agency in the country sustain an injury on any given day. The lack of regulation in day labor workplaces gives workers little protection, training or liability leverage. In California, day laborers experience workplace injuries at almost twice the rate of other workers in the state.
From the Arizona Republic
http://www.azcentral.com/news/speci
� The tourism industry employs 354,000 workers in Arizona and is the No. 1 job provider in the state.
But some resorts must pay nearly twice the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour to lure housekeepers.
"We couldn't operate in our industry without immigrant workers, legal and illegal," said John Gay, a Washington lobbyist for the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
� The restaurant industry, with 154,000 jobs in Arizona, also finds itself in tight labor straits, said Brad Kuluris, part owner of 39 Whataburger franchises in Arizona. Whataburger couldn't operate 24 hours a day or open new stores without immigrant workers, who make up half the payroll of 800, he said.
"These folks come here, legally or illegally, to work," Kuluris said. "The public gets very emotional about this, but these aren't the type of jobs that somebody laid off from a dot-com company wants."
� The Arizona Builders Alliance said 64,000 of the state's 160,000 construction workers are Hispanic and estimates that 16,000 are undocumented. But union organizers and advocates for immigrants say at least half of the laborers in the construction trades are undocumented Hispanic workers.
Bruce Jacobson, owner of Jacobson Cos. construction in Yuma, estimated that without immigrant workers, home building costs in the state would go up about 25 percent because of delays and upward pressure on wages.
� Undocumented immigrants made up 52 percent of the nation's 1.6 million farmworkers in 1998, according to a U.S. Department of Labor survey. An estimated 36,480 undocumented farmworkers are in Arizona, if the proportion from the Labor Department is applied.
Clyde Cuming, a longtime farmer of 1,500 acres north of the Arizona border town of San Luis, said agriculture "would not exist" without immigrant farmhands.
"Personally, I don't think you would ever be able to hire a U.S. citizen to do this work, even if you went up to $10 an hour," Cuming said. "You haven't seen the locals work in the field since the boys went off . . . in World War II."
� The Washington-based American Nursery and Landscape Association estimates that illegal immigrants could account for as much as 80 percent of workers in the industry, which employs roughly 27,000 in Arizona.