As with most stereotypes, there’s an element of truth here. The Wall Street Journal reports that half of the country’s newest immigrants — 500,000 per year, most of them Hispanic — arrive illegally. Low-skilled service jobs (such as construction labor) are often their only option, particularly when they can barely read or write in their own language. Only 49% of immigrants from Latin America are high school graduates, compared with 87% of Asians and 85% of Europeans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“It’s a known fact that there are a lot of illegal people here,” says Carmen Urbieta of Urbieta Construction, in Dayton, Ohio. “They knock on our door constantly, always looking for work.” Many of them have documentation, “but you don’t know what’s valid and what’s not.”
“It’s awfully hard to identify fraudulent documents,” agrees Jack Pinnix, an immigration lawyer in Raleigh, N.C., and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “But the good news is that the employer doesn’t have to be a forensic expert to accept a document, as long as it’s not handed to them with an admission that it’s fraudulent.”
Remodelers who don’t follow the rules with workers — whether day laborers picked up at the 7-Eleven or long-time carpenters — are playing a high-risk game that can end in ruin. But these seem to be the exception, especially among established companies. “The employers coming to me aren’t looking for cheap labor so they can shaft the competition,” Pinnix says. “They’re looking for someone who can help keep their business running, period. And they often don’t have the American workforce that’s available or qualified to accept these positions.”
LANGUAGE LESSONS Second to legal questions, the most frequently cited challenge involving foreign workers involves communicating with others who don’t speak your (or your clients’) language.
“In a perfect world, if I was moving to another country, I would want to learn the language,” Hilton says. In the real world of southern Florida, much of the huge Hispanic community speaks little English, forcing non-Spanish-speakers like himself to get their messages across in other ways. He and others say that they’ve had limited success by patching together a few key phrases, demonstrating by example, using training videos/DVDs, or drawing pictures.
Specialized media can also bridge divides, such as El Nuevo Constructor, a Spanish-language trade magazine published by Hanley Wood (publisher of REMODELING). In addition, some remodelers require a bilingual supervisor to be on site at all times, to translate as needed.
Although knowing a bare modicum of English may be sufficient for laborers who perform discrete tasks and have limited contact with homeowners, most remodelers agree that those in positions of responsibility, such as lead carpenters, must speak it fluently. Wallace says he is very clear with his staff that the better they can communicate, the better their advancement opportunities will be. He picks up the tab for them to take evening or weekend English classes at a local language school.
Many other remodelers also underwrite their employees’ language lessons. For instance, Pagés brings in his own 80-year-old mother to tutor his workers on Tuesday evenings. Mark IV Builders in Bethesda, Md., has sent employees to classes at a community college and brought in a tutor to its offices. Carmen Urbieta says that English-training opportunities are so abundant — and frequently free — that “failure to learn it through one means or another is a copout. Churches offer classes, the Red Cross offers it, the [American] Literacy Council has tutors,” Urbieta says. “And Dayton isn’t even a big city!”
Legal immigrants comprise 38% of the work-force and 55% of the field staff at Bowa Builders, in McLean, Va. Besides encouraging immigrants to learn English, Bowa encourages its senior-level production employees to learn Spanish, subsidizing classes when possible, says Kathy Kelly, marketing director. BOWA also selected a benefits representative who is fluent in Spanish and is well versed in addressing the importance of retirement planning from a cultural perspective, she says. This emphasis on career development has helped move several immigrants into senior-level positions, including project manager and assistant project manager.