Hard Labor

Copyright © Photo by Ara Oshagan '88

In December 2005, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill aimed partly at building a fence along a third of the nation’s 2,000-mile border with Mexico, where the United States Border Patrol manages to catch only one-fourth of all the people who cross over. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, some 700,000 unauthorized immigrants enter the country every year. Policy-makers and legislators wrestling with the issue have heard volleys of charges, counter-charges and dueling statistics, but, until recently, very little real data on day labor in the nation.

Two days after the confrontation in Burbank, the first national analysis of immigrant day laborers, or jornaleros, was released to widespread media attention. Titled “On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States,” it is based on data gathered from 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Snapshot of an Underclass

Copyright © Photo by Ara Oshagan '88

In the two-year study, a team of researchers at UCLA, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the New School University in New York City surveyed 2,660 day laborers at 264 hiring sites nationwide. Applying statistical methods pioneered by researchers in quantifying another elusive group — America’s homeless — the study offers a snapshot of an underclass that often suffers injuries at work, is frequently cheated of pay and is widely abused.

On a typical day, the study found, some 117,600 jornaleros — three-and-a-half times the population of Beverly Hills — are out working or hunting for jobs. Three-fourths of them are undocumented and only a small percentage have applied for residency. Most work in the home construction industry, relying solely on day labor to make ends meet. They congregate outside home-improvement stores, gas stations, public parks, empty parking lots, even churches.

Some seek work through day-labor worker centers run by community organizations. They earn an average of $10 an hour, but because work is unsteady, not many make more than $15,000 a year doing jobs widely regarded as dirty, dangerous or simply back-breaking: demolition, excavation, building drywalls and stone fences, hauling goods, painting, picking grapes.

Published Apr 1, 2006 8:00 AM