Labor woes don't keep immigrants from landing work

Meet Jose Carrillo. The 29-year-old laborer, newly arrived from Mexico, is part of a surprising statistic: A wave of foreign-born workers have found work in the United States even as the nation's economy struggles through a jobless recovery.

Labor researchers say the number of employed foreign-born workers rose by 600,000 in the two years ended last December. For immigrants, particularly the steady supply of Mexicans, there seem to be jobs.

"The more the economy declines, the more work for the undocumented," said Joel Magallan, a Jesuit brother who runs a social- service agency in Manhattan for immigrants. "Every day, there are more."

That's because they work for such low wages, and, thus, can help keep a business afloat, he said. And the growing Hispanic population creates a need for Spanish-speaking employees to serve them, creating even more business energy.

As for Carrillo, the new job with a Brooklyn landscaping firm is a little rough. But he's paid in cash and gets seven times more than he did back home picking onions. "If you come to New York, you can get ahead," he said.

Ricardo Guerrero, a 35-year-old Mexican immigrant, said: "People would rather die in the passage to the United States than stay in Mexico. Things are just too hard there."

Mexico's economy contracted slightly in the first quarter, raising fears of a double-dip recession. The initial boost from the nearly 10-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement has faded — and with it the promise by then-President Carlos Salinas that Mexico would export products, not people.

Immigrants say they would benefit from an immigration accord legalizing the flow of workers to the United States.

But an immigration accord between the United States and Mexico seems politically unlikely in the near future, say many analysts on both sides of the Rio Grande.

In fact, the statistical flows are reigniting an old debate that occurs in a weak economy: Do illegal immigrants take jobs from the native-born? And should the United States better control illegal and legal immigration when so many of the native-born are without work?

"I think immigration is a great thing, but I think we have to do it in a smart way," said Paul Harrington of Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies.

At Northeastern, researchers say immigration is going up, despite the 2001 terrorist attacks and the recession that followed. They cite as reasons the rising employment of the foreign-born and Hispanics.

And yet Hispanics have significantly been hurt by the 2001 recession. The national unemployment rate climbed to 6.4 percent in June. Hispanic unemployment has been rising higher, hitting 8.4 percent in June. That's up from the lowest level of 5.1 percent for Hispanics in October 2000 when the economy still was booming.