This to me, speaks, volumes about the former resident of New Orleans more than anything else and I live in N.W. Florida! Other than that, it's a supply and demand issue.
Posted on 10/29/2006 6:12:25 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
NEW ORLEANS - Above the din of hammers, drills and mortar mixers, some immigrant construction workers are grumbling that wages have dropped and a lull in work has developed in the last few months. "It was better in the beginning," said Honduran Marcos Antonio Enamorado, who lived in Houston for six years before moving to New Orleans last year. The prospect of a plethora of high-paying jobs is drawing workers like Enamorado to the area. But some immigrants, especially those on the ground looking for work, say there aren't as many projects under way and wages are falling. Enamorado may be right about it being better in the beginning. According to an April estimate by the Washington-based Advancement Project, 30,000 to 100,000 migrant workers moved to Gulf Coast areas after Hurricane Katrina.
And according to a June study by Tulane University and University of California, Berkeley, a fourth of the construction workers in New Orleans are undocumented. Another indicator of the massive influx: remittances, the money sent to family out of the country. So many immigrants have settled in the area, at least temporarily, that remittances from Louisiana will soar nearly 250 percent to $208 million this year from $61 million in 2004, according to a recent report released by the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund. The Mexican government estimates that 30,000 Mexicans are living in New Orleans and the surrounding area, up from 5,000 before the hurricane.
"They are contributing in an important way to the reconstruction of the city," Juan Bosco Marti, general director for North America for the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a recent visit to New Orleans. That demographic shift has persuaded the government, which has been operating a mobile consular office out of Houston since 2002, to reopen a New Orleans consulate next year. During a recent visit by the mobile consulate, Marco Antonio Salazar and his wife, Estella Hernandez, were among the hundreds of people lined up at the Hispanic Business Resources and Technology Center in Kenner. The former Galveston residents relocated to New Orleans because of better job opportunities and were renewing their Mexican passports.
"In Houston there's little work. There's not the same level of work as here," said Salazar, who moved to New Orleans six months ago and earns $150 a day in construction. But now Hispanic day laborers who wait on street corners and in front of hardware stores in hopes of getting hired say there's a glut of immigrant workers and not enough projects under way. Immigrants complain that too many of their compatriots have migrated from Houston to New Orleans."A lot of people arrived," said Juan Martinez, a Mexican immigrant who relocated to New Orleans from Memphis in March. "The Texans lowered the prices," he added. In the spring, labor prices were chopped in half to as little as $400 a week as more workers and contractors arrived, Martinez said as he and four of his cousins from the Mexican state of Zacatecas recently waited for potential employers to hire them at a Lowe's parking lot in Metairie. Even Baytown-based contractor Jose Yanez, who moved to New Orleans in December, said business has slowed since May, but it's still better than it is in Houston.
"There's a lot of competition in Houston," said Yanez, who moved to Baytown from El Salvador eight years ago. "You make an estimate, and someone else gives it lower." Many construction workers agree that although wages and work have dipped lately, there's still more opportunity in New Orleans. Entire neighborhoods remain damaged and abandoned, and many businesses are still shuttered, promising more work to come. "Many people predict there will be jobs here for the next 10 years," said Phuong Pham, an associate professor at Tulane University and one of the authors of the June study Rebuilding After Katrina. That's why many immigrant workers said they plan to stay in the area at least a few more years because they earn more in the Crescent City than they do in the Bayou City.
It's just supply and demand. Why's that news?
Why doesn't Blanco increase the minimum wage?
Holy Supply and Demand, Batman, whatever could be responsible for this shift in wages?
"as little as $400 per week"
No kidding, 5days X 8Hours/day X 10$/hour = $400.
If they were legel residents they would be offered overtime pay and other work protections. This is one reason (if we need any more) why illegal immigrants shouldn't be tolerated, it is for their own good too. They are easy targets for criminals.
This to me, speaks, volumes about the former resident of New Orleans more than anything else and I live in N.W. Florida! Other than that, it's a supply and demand issue.
She probably doesn't know what that is.
'Bout time they started screwing each other...
Welcome to the world of the American Construction worker as you came along and lowered his wages and opportunities for good work. I thought you were only here to do the jobs us American's wouldn't do anyway.
Construction used to be a great paying job for Americans as well as something an American who didn't go to college could do to make a decent enough wage to raise a family.
Please substitute the words "illegal immigrant(s)" for the word "immigrant(s)" where it appears in the article.
The Chronicle doesn't recognize the word illegal where it concerns those who should not be in this country.
A major reason why the GOP is worried this election; they've allowed 12+M ILLEGAL aliens to dig them a political hole.
As a survivor of 4 hurricanes in 3 years on Florida I am just fed up with the carpng wnd whinning from all the welfare folks still on the public dole from New Orleans.
It happened, get off your asses and quit waiting for a handout and do for yourselves.
Quit playing the race crap and victim crap.
How are things down in Florida? Have they managed to clear up all the debris and get everyone's roof repaired? About six months ago, someone told me there were still a lot of blue tarps visible.
Where are all of the patriotic black citizens of NOLA. They are among the missing when it comes to the hard work of rebuilding this festering sore of America.
Port St. Lucie here. Hardly any blue roofs left.
After the 1st couple of storms most folks got new roofs with higher code standards.
Also much of the debris was gone so when the next storms came folks were much better prepared.
We are pros at this point and when the one came this year that fizzled out I was suprised at how most were well prepared with shutters and all.
Very few folks stayed on the public dole for extended lengths of time here. Churches, firemen local companies all volunteered to help those needy.
Now even manufactured homes are much better built. Still wouldn't stay in one during a storm.
Along the barrier island, Hutchinson Island was under water and nearly every home had at least a few feet of sand throughout. Now you can hardly tell we got hit and hit and hit and hit.
You got that right. FR now limits us to four (4) keywords. Illegal IS a big part of this equation, isn't it?
Taco trucks add new dimension to flavors of southern Louisiana
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
METAIRIE, LA. - Inside the Taquería Sanchez, workers slice tomatoes, cook fajitas and take orders from customers who line up outside the mobile Mexican restaurant.
The aroma of onions and beef cooking on the grill wafts through the windows of this taco stand parked outside a daiquiri bar off of Veterans Memorial Boulevard. Over the sounds of sizzling fajitas, norteño and merengue music broadcasts over a radio in the truck.
On a Friday night, the parking lot fills with pickups, cargo vans and cars as Hispanic immigrants and Louisiana natives order dinners of Mexican soft drinks and tacos topped with a green salsa. Construction workers in paint-spattered clothing place paper plates on the truck's stainless steel counters and enjoy their meals.
"They are similar to the tacos made in your country," said construction worker Roberto Palma, who hails from the Mexican state of Veracruz. "These are the ones that are the most similar to the place where I'm from."
Taco trucks are one of the hottest new businesses in the New Orleans area, fueled by the Hispanic population that relocated to rebuild homes, businesses and roads destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Few taco trucks roamed the streets of the Crescent City before Katrina struck, and now 21 mobile vendors plying Hispanic foods are licensed by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
{end snip}
ping
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