Workforce Language Services

Skin color, social status and accent are all underlying prejudices that Hispanic employers may consider in Hispanic job applicants, confesses a blogger who works in the multicultural advertising/marketing industry.

It may not be conscious, but Rochelle Newman-Carrasco says that this discrimination is common practice, the so-called “elephant in the room.”

On skin color:

“If truth be told, there are U.S. Hispanic agencies whose staff photos simply do not reflect the diversity of the U.S. Hispanic population as a whole. Black Hispanics have historically found it difficult to find acceptance within some Hispanic circles.”

On accent:

“There are any number of accented Latinos who not only can make themselves understood, but also can out-think and outperform some of their non-accented co-workers. Nonetheless, over the past six months, I have received at least two calls from general-market colleagues about creative positions they were seeking to fill. And in both cases they were hoping I knew someone who “didn’t have an accent” because they didn’t feel their clients would be comfortable.”

Click here to read the full blog post by Newman-Carrasco.

An article published by the Center for American Progress recommends that the United States invest more actively in the integration of its recent immigrant populations.

This goes far beyond English classes—government policy should also include civics instruction and incentives for businesses that educate their non-English speaking employees. The European Union, which has also seen unprecedented waves of immigration in the last decade, has established an integration forum, Web site, and an Integration Fund that will help each community help their newcomers.

Cities and counties in the United States who are seeing an influx of immigrants for the very first time will enjoy stronger economic growth, among other benefits, if they adapt to shifting populations.

Representative Honda eloquently explained this at the introduction of his legislation in 2008, stating, “As a country of immigrants we have always depended upon newcomers to fuel our progress…legislation that provides them educational tools is logical and good for our country…Their success is America’s success, and we should invest in it through sound education policies such as this.”

The U.S. lags behind the E.U. in terms of integration policy, but is starting to make a step forward. President Obama’s 2010 budget allocates $10 million for a new citizenship program, for example. Read more about what the U.S. is doing to integrate its newcomers here.

A professor at the University of British Columbia tackles the idea of equal opportunity employment in a recent study. It turns out, you’re much more likely to get a callback after submitting a resume simply by having a perceived “white” and not foreign name.

As part of his research, the professor tailored 6,000 mock resumes to specific job requirements in 20 occupational categories and sent them to employers with online job postings in the Greater Toronto area.

Each resume listed a bachelor’s degree and up to six years’ experience but the study found resumes with names like Jill Wilson or John Martin received interview callbacks 40 per cent more often than identical resumes with names like Sana Khan or Lei Li.

The study mirrors another published in 2003 by the National Bureau of Economics Research, in which researchers found that job applicants with African-American sounding names tended to get 10 callbacks while applicants with white names got 15.

Click here to read the summary of the research “Employers’ Replies to Racial Names.”

Many undocumented workers have learned a valuable lesson after being injured on the job: “Don’t be afraid to talk to a lawyer.”

CNN reports that two undocumented workers recently won settlements totaling $3.85 million after suffering workplace accidents. Undocumented workers suffer accidents and death disproportionally due largely to lack of safety protections. Illegal or not, they have the same right to claim damages as citizens or legal residents.

Although it is illegal for an employer to knowingly hire a worker who is undocumented, according to the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigration Affairs, if an undocumented worker is hired by an employer, he or she then has the right to be paid minimum wage and overtime, the right to health protection and workplace safety, and the right to organize to improve labor conditions.

“Each of these men was injured in the course of their work on construction sites, and their immigration status was irrelevant to their right to seek redress for those injuries,” [Brian] O’Dwyer explained in a statement. “Enforcing laws requiring a safe workplace serves the interests of all Americans, whether they are citizens or not.”

These settlements bring much needed notice to unsafe conditions at work-sites (especially in construction) that undocumented workers face. Employers should be encouraged to make sure all workers understand how to protect themselves.

Read the full story here.

An online article suggests some reasons why a company would want to offer English classes to its employees:

Some companies that don’t provide English language skills training said they would do so if it would increase productivity (27%), increase employee engagement (17.7%), improve employees’ career opportunities—regardless of what their native language is (17.7%), improve workplace safety (12.5%), improve bilingual employees’ career opportunities (11.5%), reduce turnover (5.2%), and demonstrate the company’s commitment to immigrant communities (5.2%).

The article also recommends looking into community resources for employees to access English lessons as well as considering providing classes on site.  While onsite classes would obviously cost more for the company, one of the benefits would be the ability to target the lessons to what employees need to know to be successful and safe in that particular industry.

To read the entire article, click here.

A recent article in the Washington Post detailed the brain drain that the U.S. is experiencing as talented professionals return to their countries of origin.  And the O.C. Register describes the effect that the large numbers of Mexican immigrants departing has on both the immigrants themselves as well as the businesses that cater to them. 

Both articles mention the industries that suffer when immigrants depart. 

From the first article:

Why does all this matter? Because just as the United States has relied on foreigners to underwrite its deficit, it has also depended on smart immigrants to staff its laboratories, engineering design studios and tech firms. An analysis of the 2000 Census showed that although immigrants accounted for only 12 percent of the U.S. workforce, they made up 47 percent of all scientists and engineers with doctorates. What’s more, 67 percent of all those who entered the fields of science and engineering between 1995 and 2006 were immigrants. What will happen to America’s competitive edge when these people go home?

From the second:

The financial downturn has hit immigrants especially hard because many of the industries that employed them, such as construction, have taken a severe nose dive, said Jorge Chapa, director of the Illinois-based Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society.

Of course, it’s too soon to see the long term effect of this immigrant exodus, but I wonder if native born Americans will get the skills to fill the high tech positions and the gumption to fill the labor-oriented positions.

The Contra Costa Times reports on the effect of the recession on foreign-born Latinos.  The article compares unemployment rates of Latino immigrants to those of American-born minorities, and notes that, while the percentages still favor the former population, the rates of unemployment still surge for thsi group:

In at least one sense, immigrant Latinos are still better off than native-born Latinos and African-Americans, two groups that have higher overall rates of unemployment. About 11.5 percent of African-Americans were unemployed in the last three months of 2008, and 9.5 percent of native-born Latinos were without work, said Kochhar, who looked at information from a monthly survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.But in the past year, no group has dropped from the nation’s workforce at a faster rate than Latinos from abroad, Kochhar said. Some of the problems along Monument Boulevard can be measured by the record 6,500 people who now seek free food every month from the Monument Crisis Center, said Sandra Scherer, the nonprofit’s executive director.

To read the entire article, click here. And for related commentary from the New York Times about compassion for workers regardless of immigration status, click here.

A scholarly feature article in the Migration Information Source examines the role of the feeling of belonging in the process of immigrant integration in modern times.  Drawing from ethnography, the article focuses on the immigrant experience in England, but the author also identifies 10 feedback circuits that are application to any country in the world in which immigrants reside.

These 10 feedback circuits, or areas from which people receive messages about belonging run the gamut from the familial to the cultural to those that necessitate support from the larger culture.  A few of these markers are particularly interesting to those striving for cultural competence:

8. Everyday public services that are of the people as well as for the people. In rural societies, police officers, health professionals, and teachers live in the same communities they serve. The patterns in cities are less clear-cut, and the mismatch between public services and communities creates tensions, such as the continuing battles over Muslim schools, or health care that is attuned to Koranic teachings.

A related issue — acute now for long-standing working-class communities — is the perceived injustice of decisions and distributions. In the United Kingdom, public hostility to asylum seekers often comes from the perception that asylum seekers have privileged access to resources.

9. Homes. If people like you, your family, and your friends can afford housing in the community (to rent or to buy), and the owners or landlords are willing to rent or sell to you and those like you, then you are receiving a positive message.

Public-housing policy also matters. The Young Foundation’s work showed the very damaging effects of UK public-housing policies that separated families in an effort to allocate strictly according to need. Although classic social-policy terms justify this type of rationing, such policies essentially told local people they had no claim on their locality.

10. Law and its enforcement. The legitimacy of law — that it reflects the community’s values and protects its interests — is critical to belonging. In many places, new negotiations are needed over nonnegotiable rules (for example, on the place of forced marriage).

To read the entire article, click here.

Marketplace, a public radio program through American Public Media, is looking for personal responses regarding the effect that the recession has had on older immigrants.  They seek input from immigrants and those who work with immigrants in and provide a form requesting both basic demographic information and narrative responses to a few questions. 

To respond to the survey, click here. 

By sharing your insight, either as an immigrant yourself or someone who works with immigrants, you’ll be able to contribute to reportage on the intersection of two of the most compelling issues facing the U.S.: the immigrant experience and the economic recession.

To peruse the many article and blog postings on American Public Radio’s Marketplace, click here.

In Rochester, Minnesota, a new initiative called VOICES (Valuing Our Immigrants Contributions to Economic Success) attempts to draw the connection between supporting immigrants’ integration into the economy and economic growth.  The initiative is still exploring the ways in which the city can foster immigrants’ contributions and at a recent meeting attendees discussed possible directions:

Among the pages of ideas that were shared at the meeting were that immigrants bring global connections, tenacity and financial responsibility, and they can expand companies’ customer base. Employers provide a place for immigrants to realize their dreams, to receive mentorships and training, and to find social mobility. And the community provides the Rochester International World Festival, adult education, advocacy in the judicial system, charter schools and immigrant-owned businesses.

To read the entire article, click here.