Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (2024)

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (1)

Three king beds are squeezed together inside a tiny motel room in downtown Reno like a life-size game of Tetris.

Just inches away, people shufflein and out of a tiny shared bathroom ― some in halfway-buttoned work shirts, others still wrapped in towels ― with almost assembly line efficiency.

“What time is the bus coming?” one girl asked in Filipino as she hurriedly buttoned her shirt.

“You’ll be fine,” one man responded.

Just two and a half months ago, both workers were living halfway around the world in the Philippines. On this day, however, they are happily living their slice of the American dream.

Here, in a cramped room of an aging motel built during Jimmy Carter’s first year in office, six roommates marveled at just how vast their opportunities can be in the United States.

Clark Dixon Ravanes’ eyes widened with disbelief as the fresh-faced 20-year-old talked about how much money he was making at a local hotel-casino. Ravanes has been busing tables to the tune of $8.25 an hour since coming to America.

In Nevada, Ravanes’ pay is the minimum wage allowed for jobs that do not provide health benefits. For the young man, however, it is a veritable jackpot.

In the Philippines, Ravanes earned the equivalent of less than $7 working at a hotel. That, by the way, was for one whole day.

“Before coming here, one day’s salary for me in the Philippines was just 340 pesos,” Ravanes said. “Here, you get to earn that in just one hour!”

In two weeks, Ravanes and his roommates ― who came to the United States on nonimmigrant J-1 visas ― will be back home in the Philippines as the terms of their work-exchange program expire. All six, however, dream of coming back someday and joining the ranks of America’s immigrants.

They are not alone.

From 2014 to 2015, the number of immigrants in the United States rose nearly 900,000 to 43.3 million, according to the American Community Survey. Add second-generation family members to the mix and immigrants and their children comprise nearly 1 in 4 Americans, according to a National Academy of Sciences immigration study released last September.

Fueled by their dreams and the promise of a better life, immigrants continue to make an impact not just on American society and culture but the U.S. economy and its labor force.

Today, immigrant workers comprise a sizable chunk of American industry, including traditional sectors such as construction, agriculture and service occupations. In addition to making up a significant number of technology sector workers, immigrants also helped found several disruptive and high-profile tech companies such as Google, Tesla and Flirtey.

At the same time, immigrants find themselves at the center of a national debate that has only gained strength with the election of President Donald Trump.

Nearly 1 in 5 Nevada workers in 2014, for example, are undocumented immigrants, according to the Pew Research Center.Although undocumented immigrants attract the biggest spotlight, some groups such as the Center for Immigration Studies ― whose data was cited by Trump during his campaign― are also calling for a reduction in legal immigration, citing alleged impacts on job availability and wages for native-born residents as well as social services.

Despite the fierce debate, however, many immigrants continue to eye a new life in America. Ogenloyd Bryan Lopez Silva, a 26-year-old who shared a room with Ravanes at Reno’s Time Zone Motel, says the reason for the United States’ allure to immigrants is simple.

“America is opportunity to us,” Silva said. “Here, you can have a nice future.”

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (2)

Eugenio Medina squinted before donning his sunglasses on a scorching 98-degree day in late June.

Medina, known to friends and co-workers by his nickname Henio, developed a reputation in Reno’s construction circles as a hotshot house framer. On this day, Medina was visiting Reno’s Skyline neighborhood to inspect the framing job his company was doing on a new home.

“Back in 1998, I went to help my brother in construction one weekend,” Medina said. “I liked it so much that I decided to quit my excavating job and do framing on my own.”

Today, the 44-year-old Medina counts himself as an American citizen and a job creator. Medina is one-half of the brain trust for framing and custom home company C&E Builders, which he co-founded with partner Chris York in 2011.

Twenty-four years ago, however, his situation was much different.

One night in 1993, Medina was shivering in the cold as he tried to sleep in the desert during his first attempt to cross the U.S. border. Medina, who described himself as “poor but happy” at the time, once dreamed of becoming an architect in Mexico. His family, however, could not afford to send him to college and Medina says he was destined to become a struggling laborer there.

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (3)

Medina decided to leave his home state of Nayarit and pay his cousin $2,450 to act as his “coyotaje,” or guide across the border.

“We got caught twice and sent back to Mexico and we would try again the next day,” Medina said. “You hear a lot of stories about people getting killed and dying in the desert but I was lucky to make it.”

After being caught in the U.S. and deported once more in 1994, Medina would make it back to the United States once again to try his hand at various jobs, including cooking and washing dishes.

Medina, however, wanted more.

“I didn’t come to the U.S. to be a dishwasher,” Medina said.

Medina would find his place in Nevada’s construction industry. At first, he only did simple labor on job sites before moving up to operating heavy machinery. As Medina’s skill sets and management know-how improved, he was placed in charge of overseeing worker crews.

“I saw a lot of opportunities here and went for it,” said Medina, who was naturalized in 2001. “I decided to stay.”

Nevada, which enjoyed an extended run as the fastest-growing state in the nation prior to the recession, remains a popular destination for immigrants. The Silver State looks even more appealing when compared to places such as Arizona, which passed stricter immigration laws, said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Research Center. Arizona saw its undocumented immigrant population peak at 500,000 in 2007 before the recession and tougher laws combined to reduce that number by 40 percent to 300,000 by 2012, the Pew Research Center found.

In Nevada, legal and undocumented immigrants comprise 19 percent of the population, which is significantly higher than the national average of 13.5 percent, said state demographer Jeff Hardcastle. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates Nevada’s total population to be at 2.94 million in 2016.

The state also has a more established immigrant population. Nearly 62 percent of Nevada’s immigrants entered the country prior to 2000 compared to 56 percent nationally, Hardcastle said.

Nevada also tops the nation in one key metric.

“When you look at the states with the largest share of undocumented immigrants, a lot of them are Western states,” Passel said. “Nevada, however, is No. 1.”

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (4)

Although Nevada’s total numbers for undocumented immigrants pale in comparison to states such as California, Texas and Florida, they account for a larger share of the state’s population.

Nevada had 210,000 undocumented immigrants in its workforce in 2014, based on the latest data available from Pew Research Center. The number is down by 40,000 from 2007 but represents 19 percent of the Nevada workforce ― the highest of any state, Passel said.

Undocumented immigrants in Nevada also account for a little over 7 percent of the state’s total population, more than double the national rate.

“That reflects the kind of economy that Nevada has, where the jobs are accessible to this population,” Passel said.

Even as Nevada sees success in diversifying its economy through logistics, manufacturing and aerospace ― as well as the arrival of tech heavyweights such as Apple, Tesla and Google ― its tourism and gaming industry remain a big part of the state economy.

Nationwide, 10 percent of U.S. immigrants work in the leisure and hospitality industry. In Nevada, the number shoots up to 26 percent, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center employment study.

The large share that immigrants hold in certain jobs sectors is raising concerns among some groups about the impact on opportunities for native-born residents.

Every policy, including immigration, will always have winners and losers, said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. The Washington, D.C.-based organization advocates for lower rates of immigration and is no stranger to controversy arising from its views.

“If you like the benefits that immigration creates, then you’ve got to own the income redistribution, which is huge and often comes out of the wages of the least educated and poorest Americans,” Camarota said. “They are disproportionately represented among the losers.”

A look at the top 10 jobs with workers that are most likely to be immigrants include stylists, agricultural work, tailoring, transportation and construction, according to data from the Pew Research Center. An estimated 59 percent of plasterers and stucco masons are immigrants. Of that number, 36 percent are undocumented.

Representatives of the construction industry point to the challenge of finding workers domestically, which is further aggravated today by strong building demand stemming from a nationwide housing shortage. In addition to losing workers from retirement as well as the Great Recession, there is often a stigma attached to construction, which is sometimes seen as a career of last resort, said Brian Turmail, senior director of public affairs for the Associated General Contractors of America.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Turmail said. “You can’t disinvest in vocational education (for construction) and expect to have a robust construction workforce.”

The same argument is being used by other sectors that hire employees through work visas. Whether it be skilled technology workers through H-1B visas or service workers using J-1 visas, many companies depend on that workforce to deal with critical shortages in their hiring pool, said Mike Kazmierski, president and CEO of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada.

One solution that is often suggested to attract more non-immigrant workers to do less skilled jobs is to raise wages. Kazmierski, however, says that increasing worker pay is easier said than done.

“All that companies will do is pass the costs to their customers,” Kazmierski said. “If your prices are too high, then you’re no longer competitive and you go out of business.”

Critics are not buying the business cost argument. Camarota pointed to real wages for U.S. workers being essentially flat in the last three-and-a-half decades, which is backed by data from the Pew Research Center as well as the more labor-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Camarota tied everything back once more to income redistribution, echoing an opinion by Harvard Kennedy School professor and labor economist George Borjas.

“Wages do not vanish into thin air,” Camarota said. “What immigration has done is redistribute income around from some workers to the owners of capital.”

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (5)

Like the tea that his company makes, Kunall Patel is a product of the world.

Born in Kenya, the 37-year-old Patel spent his formative years living in India, Portugal and the United Kingdom as his father chased opportunities wherever he could find them. Although the experience enriched Patel’s worldview, it also showed him the harsher side of immigration.

“I saw my father struggle immigrating to those countries, setting up jobs and working for other people,” Patel said. “For some reason, we just never made it.”

Patel cited the experience as one reason for developing a strong, laser-focused drive to succeed. From Wales, Patel moved to New Jersey in 2001 to finish college, landing a job with JPMorgan Chase in New York City once he graduated. It was after marrying a third-generation organic tea grower, however, that Patel would find his true calling.

Patel and wife Promilla, whose family has been growing tea since the 1920s, decided to go west from New York after buying an old tea company in Reno called Davidson Organics. Since taking over the business 10 years ago, the couple has invested half a million dollars in new machinery and infrastructure while growing its original staff of six to about 30 people.

For the well-traveled Patel, running a company that sources its teas from various countries, was a perfect fit.

“Tea is a melting pot,” Patel said. “It’s comprised of ingredients from different regions and cultures and ethnicities.”

In that sense, tea serves as the perfect metaphor for the United States’ diversity, Patel said. It also symbolizes one of the most powerful hooks for immigrants to come to America: entrepreneurship.

Kent Young, CEO of Nevada-based internet gaming business Spin Games, started two companies after moving to the United States from Australia in 2000. One was sold successfully within two years of its creation and the other continues to grow, he said. Young also counts two more immigrants ― one from India and another from Belgium ― in his company’s executive team.

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (6)

Young, who became an American citizen two years ago, credits the business environment and market opportunities available in the United States for his success. Starting a company in the United States is also easier, with laws being more conducive to entrepreneurship, he said.

“Compared to Australia, the market here is generally a lot more open to being successful for entrepreneurs,” Young said. “The ability to start a business is a lot more seamless.”

It is a notion shared by many immigrants.

While immigrants represent 15 percent of the population, they account for a quarter of U.S. entrepreneurs, according to a 2016 analysis by the Harvard Business Review. Immigrants also represent a similar share of patents and inventions.

The same analysis found that 35 percent to 40 percent of new firms have at least one immigrant entrepreneur involved in their founding.

Although high-profile companies with venture capital backing such as drone delivery company Flirtey typically get most of the attention, immigrants are making their mark in the small business sector as well.

The business ownership rate for immigrants is at 10.5 percent compared to 9.3 percent for U.S.-born citizens, according to a 2012 Small Business Administration report on immigrant entrepreneurs. The difference is more notable when looking at the number of businesses formed each month. About 620 out of 100,000 immigrants start a business per month compared to 280 out of 100,000 for non-immigrants.

Although there might be some merit to arguments about immigrants being uniquely entrepreneurial or innovative, Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies says there’s likely another reason for their higher rates of patent and business creation.

“It mainly reflects their educational attainment,” Camarota said.

A report released earlier this year by the U.S. Census Bureau found that about a third of Americans age 25 and older have college degrees. The number is a slight improvement over the 30 percent reported by Pew in 2015. That same Pew report, however, found that a higher rate of immigrants ― 41 percent ― who came to the U.S. in the last five years had a college degree.

Pew's Passel also notes that there is a distinction between undocumented and legal immigrants. While undocumented immigrants typically have lower levels of education, legal immigrants have higher rates for obtaining college degrees.

Regardless, the impact of immigrants on the U.S. economy is significant, according to the Small Business Administration.

“Immigrants have high business formation rates, and many of the businesses they create are very successful, hire employees and export goods and services to other countries,” the SBA wrote in its report about immigrant entrepreneurs.

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (7)

A box of American candies and canned meat lies on the floor of the Time Zone Motel in Reno, a telltale sign for Filipinos that someone is going back home.

American items have been a popular “pasalubong” or souvenir to bring home to the Philippines since World War II, when American GIs shared Milky Way bars, Spam and Marlboro cigarettes to the Filipinos they encountered.

This box belongs to Ravanes, who quickly filled it up after being introduced to an American consumer tradition known as the “Costco run.” He looked at the box, flashed a sheepish smile and simply shook his head.

“I spent so much,” Ravanes said.

Ravanes’ adventures in capitalism further sank him in the red. The money he earned for a couple months’ work — although a lot by Filipino standards — did not come close to the $6,000 in travel expenses and fees he and his companions each paid to a Filipino agency to take part in the exchange program.

“They told us we would be staying for three months to work and have an extra month to travel,” said 21-year-old Honey Mae Canoy. “But we were only here for two and a half months.”

Despite the cost and challenges they faced, all six described their time in the United States as an overwhelmingly positive experience.

Elah Kaye Bajao, 20, did not even mind being squeezed into a tiny motel room like sardines with a bunch of other people. For Bajao, just being able to experience living and working in America made everything worth it.

“As long as you’re in the United States, it’s still beautiful,” Bajao said.

The six Filipinos say that they are more determined than ever to look for programs that will give them an opportunity to gain permanent employment in the U.S and join its large immigrant labor force.

It’s a workforce that continues to grow.

In 1995, immigrants accounted for 12 percent of the U.S. civilian labor force, according to the Pew Research Center. By 2014, they comprised 17.1 percent of the U.S. workforce — 27.6 million out of 161.4 million workers.

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (8)

The number is expected to grow even more. As boomers enter retirement, immigrants are expected to fuel the nation’s expanding workforce, adding 17.6 million workers through 2035. Without immigrants, the U.S. working-age population would drop by more than 4 percent during the same time period. Legal immigration averages just over a million per year, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

At the same time, immigration continues to be a polarizing topic, especially when it concerns unauthorized immigrants. In 1995, there were 5.7 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. By 2014 that number has nearly doubled to 11.1 million, the National Academy of Sciences found.

There is a reason why immigration reform continues to languish despite shared support from lawmakers across the aisle as well as business and civil rights groups, Camarota said.

“When you have the editorial pages of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal in favor (of immigration reform) that’s a pretty darn broad coalition,” Camarota said. “And the reason it fails is because one interest group remains unconvinced and that’s the public.”

The argument raised by critics against more immigration run the gamut from lowering wages and taking jobs from native-born workersto siphoning resources from public programs. The National Academy of Sciences study, however, found that immigration’s impact on wages and native-born workers are minimal. While immigration reduces the hours worked mostly by native teens, for example, it does not reduce their employment levels, the study found.

Impacts on federal, state and local budgets, meanwhile, show an interesting dichotomy. First-generation immigrants had a less favorable impact on government budgets, but the trend reverses at age 60 when native-born citizens become more expensive due to a greater use of Social Security benefits.

Second-generation immigrant adults, meanwhile, showed more favorable impacts, contributing more in taxes than their parents or other native-born Americans.

Immigrants also showed a generally negative effect on state and local budgets. This is largely due to education benefits provided to children combined with revenue systems that recoup relatively little from their later contributions as adults, the study found. Conversely, immigrants provided a generally positive impact at the federal level due to their tax contributions over several years.

Immigrants such as Young pushed back against the notion that they have it easier or possess an unfair advantage.

“The market and infrastructure in America really allows everyone to take advantage of opportunities,” Young said. “If you’re willing to put in the hard work, then it pays dividends.”

Patel agreed.

If there is one advantage immigrants might have, it would be the shared hardship many of them experience prior to arriving in the United States. Seeing your parents struggle even after working so hard can be a powerful source of motivation, according to Patel. Many come to America knowing that their hard work, more often than not, will be rewarded.

“One reason you see immigrants become successful is because they are hungry,” Patel said. “Many have seen their families struggle or fail in the past so they come here wanting to be successful.

“They’ll sweep the floors if they have to in order to understand what it takes to rise up the ranks.”

Dream catchers: Immigrants make mark on U.S. economy, labor force (2024)
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