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Posts Tagged ‘immigrant’
Immigrant workers are particularly vulnerable to wage theft
Friday, December 18th, 2009An Associated Press story speaks to the issue of how immigrant workers – especially undocumented – are taken advantage of in the workplace by employers who also take advantage of their local communities by not paying taxes on the same workers they exploiting.
Across the nation, the long-simmering problem of employers who don’t pay their workers appears to be getting worse, especially for immigrant laborers.
In the absence of aggressive federal action, some states and local governments have begun to tackle the issue on their own. They say employers who don’t pay overtime or minimum wage are unlikely to pay into state workers’ compensation or unemployment insurance funds — bilking taxpayers even as they’re cheating workers.
The Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network says at least 50 percent of day laborers — there are 120,000 on a given day in the U.S. — experience some form of wage theft.
Read the full story here.
Pope urges respect for rights of child migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009“Underage migrants and refugees” is the theme chosen by the Holy Father for the ninety-sixth World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which is due to be celebrated on January 17, 2010.
“The celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees once again gives me the opportunity to express the Church’s constant concern for those who, in different ways, experience emigration. This is a phenomenon which, as I wrote in the Encyclical ‘Caritas in Veritate,’ upsets us due to the number of people involved and the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises on account of the dramatic challenges it poses to both national and international communities. The migrant is a human being who possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance.”
“While the Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states that the best interests of minors must always be safeguarded, recognizing their fundamental human rights as equal to the rights of adults, unfortunately this does not always happen in practice. Although there is an increasing public awareness of the need for immediate and incisive action to protect minors, nevertheless, many are left to themselves and, in various ways, face the risk of exploitation.”
“It is my heartfelt hope that proper attention will be given to underage migrants, who need a social environment that enables and fosters their physical, cultural, spiritual and moral development. Living in a foreign land without effective points of reference generates countless and sometimes serious hardships and difficulties for them, especially those deprived of the support of their family.
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Report highlights rights violations of detainees in Minnesota
Monday, November 23rd, 2009A study on attorneys’ perspectives on the rights of detained immigrants in Minnesota sampled attorneys who represent detained immigrants and public defenders who are appointed to represent detained immigrants for criminal violations. The study collected reports of violations of clients’ rights and includes results on barriers to representation and medical care. The result is an account of detainees locked away in centers where both rights and minimal detention standards are violated.
Read more here.
Download the report here.
Minnesota benefits from economic impact of immigrants
Monday, November 23rd, 2009Immigrants will play a key role in Minnesota’s economic future, according to a report released by the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute and the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition.
“The biggest mistake that people make when they try to evaluate the ‘costs’ of immigration is to look at short-term costs, without taking into consideration the long-term benefits that accrue when immigrants enter the labor force,” says Professor Katherine Fennelly, the lead researcher for the study.
Learn more and read the report here.
Research examines stereotypes of immigrants to the U.S.
Monday, August 10th, 2009Latin Americans – the largest and fastest-growing immigrant population in the U.S. – are viewed most negatively by Ohioans in a survey comparison of stereotypes of immigrants from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The research by sociologists Jeffrey Timberlake, a University of Cincinnati associate professor of sociology, and Rhys Williams, a professor of sociology at Loyola University Chicago, was presented Aug. 8 at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco.
What’s unique about this study, say the researchers, is that it examined four different regions that U.S. immigrants represent, and measured opinions in a state that is not affected by high numbers of immigrants.
“This makes Ohio ideal for understanding public attitudes toward immigrants that are relatively unaffected by actual immigration levels,” write the authors. “We contend that Ohioans’ attitudes are more likely to reflect national-level debates on immigrants and immigration policy, rather than the personal experience of encountering cultural conflicts or losing a job to lower-wage newcomers. In this respect, our paper provides new information about the extent to which particular stereotypes of immigrants are attached to particular groups in a relatively immigrant-free concept,” state the authors.
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Hastings: ‘immoral and irresponsible’ to continue to deny Haitians TPS
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009The Miami Herald has more information on the boat capsizing which claimed the loves of dozens of Haitians Tuesday.
Survivors say more than 200 Haitian migrants were crammed aboard a wooden sloop when it began taking water over the weekend. By late Tuesday, 118 had been rescued, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson said.
The latest boat tragedy comes as Haiti shows signs of progress following a year of natural disasters and food riots. Despite the pockets of progress, many remain destitute as jobs are slow to come by and remittances dwindle in the wake of a global recession.
In Miami, Haitian community activist Marleine Bastien said the tragedy underscores the need for the Haitian government to do a better job at monitoring its porous borders.
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, called the incident a “sad reminder of the hopelessness and desperation facing the Haitian people” and renewed his call for temporary protected status for Haitian migrants.
He said it was “immoral and irresponsible” to continue to deny TPS, noting that repeat hurricanes and an economic crisis have “practically dried up the remittances on which so many Haitian families rely.”
“Critics argue that granting TPS will compel Haitians to leave their country. Tragedies such as this make it clear that the opposite is true,” he said.
Bipartisan support key to immigration reform
Thursday, June 25th, 2009The New York Times also reports on today’s immigration meeting at the White House, noting
While there is a consensus that the immigration system is broken, Republicans and Democrats, politically burned over the issue in the recent past, remain divided even within their own parties over how to fix it.
Aides to Mr. Obama say he does not intend to get out in front of any proposal until there is a strong bipartisan commitment to pass it. That stance has the potential to paralyze the process, since lawmakers are looking to him to use his bully pulpit, and high approval ratings, to help them fend off any political backlash among their constituents.
“His position is very clear: he thinks we need comprehensive immigration reform,” David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, said in an interview. “But that’s not something that’s going to happen simply on his volition.”
Lawmakers call for granting TPS to Haiti
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
A woman and a child receive emergency rations in the aftermath of hurricane Ike last year in Gonaives, Haiti. (UN Photo/Logan Abassi)
The Miami Herald reports that a bipartisan group of South Florida congressional lawmakers – U.S. House of Representatives members Kendrick Meek, Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Debbie Wasserman Schultz – have reiterated a call to the Obama administration to grant Temporary Protected Status to Haiti after a visit to the country.
In a related editorial, the Herald notes that “Haiti has barely begun to recover from the trauma of last year’s punishing storms, but its needs are vast and its resources are scant. Without international help it cannot reasonably hope to be ready for this year’s Caribbean storms, which strike with regularity at this time of year on Hispaniola and other islands in Hurricane Alley.”
Haitians deported from neighboring country
Monday, May 18th, 2009The Dominican Republic deported 63 Haitian immigrants, most of whom are women and children, according to Dominican Today newspaper.
Read full story here.
Meanwhile, the Dominican president Monday called on the Ibero-American Community to admit Haiti as a member in an act of ‘historic reparation.’
