 "Send money here", advertises a shop in the Latin neighbourhood of San Francisco. |
 Porfirio Quintano was forced to leave his native Honduras when he started to receive death threats. First an illegal immigrant, Quintano now has a political asylum in the United States, a working permit, and is a member of the union. |
Text and photos by Maarit Roiha,
San Francisco
Honduras-born Porfirio Quintano, who lives in North California, knows the problems of illegal immigrants through his own experience. Quinano defected to the United States 14 years ago from Central America through Mexico’s Tijuana.
Porfirio Quintano, a qualified primary school teacher, worked with a non-governmental organization in his home country Honduras but decided to flee when the organization’s workers began receiving threats.
- I was afraid of losing my life.
Quintano paid 2 500 US dollars to a human trafficker in order to cross to the United States. The six-week journey went through neighbouring Salvador and Guatemala to the Mexican border. Crossing the border was easier than at first thought. The border guards then on duty for some reason did not want to arrest the defectors.
Nowadays such strikes of luck rarely happen because the border between the United States and Mexico has been tightened significantly within the last years.
Quintano was taken to a farm near the border where transportation was organized for him to Los Angeles. He headed towards San Francisco after a couple of days where his brother had already come a few years earlier, he too, illegally.
The undocumented never complains
Quintano worked in the San Francisco area for a year without permit. Among others he cleaned hotels and theatres. It was a 7-day working week and long working hours. The 700 dollars a month that Quintano received was significantly below the minimum wage. At that time California’s minimum wage was 5, 25 dollars an hour.
- There was no possibility to protest in an insecure position, he says.
Employers threatened and frightened Quintano and other illegal workers. Lack of knowledge in English language worsened the situation. Quintano sought for political asylum and got it. Political asylum made it possible to acquire a work permit. Quintano’s wife and daughter joined him in the United States legally soon after the asylum was procured.
From hostility to almost full support
Qunitano eventually acquired a permanent job in a San Francisco hospital. Initially he worked as a real estate caretaker and later on completed a course as a surgery assistant. Also he began the English language course as soon as that became possible.
For over ten years Quintano has belonged to the local trade union in the health sector and also served as a shop steward. A majority of the trade unions nowadays also accept illegal migrants into their fold as members.
- Many working here illegally shy away from trade unions because they are afraid of ending up in the hands of immigration authorities, says Mark Silverman, a leading lawyer in a San Francisco Legal Resource Centre.
In the United States only about 12 per cent of the workforce belong to trade unions. Only seven per cent of foreign born workers who are non-citizens of the United States belong to trade unions.
Some employers deliberately try to thwart the efforts of those who would like to join trade unions in organizing. One way is to employ a consultant who helps the employer to thump down the interest in becoming a trade union member. The practical means are spreading false information and unsubstantiated rumours about the harmful effects of belonging to a union, use of scare tactics and putting pressure on workers. Trade union activists could be fired and threatened with job closures.
- Many would like to join a union but it is simply not possible because of employers’ opposition, says professor Ruth Milkman who has studied the current situation of the worker’s movement in the United States and the unionization of immigrants.
Also, Quinano’s union, like many other United States unions, supports Barack Obama’s outlined immigration reform policy. Milkman points out that the attitude of trade unions towards illegal immigrants has made almost a complete turn from what it used to be in two decades.
- It has moved from hostility to almost full support, Milkman summarizes the situation. According to Milkman it would be the opportune moment to tackle the immigration issue because the economic down turn has slowed down migration to the United States. There are also no longer job opportunities in the United States like it was in the good times.
President Obama promised during his campaign to improve the situation of immigrants. Health care reform however, has been top on the priority list. Obama’s administration is expected to seriously raise the immigration issue next year.
According to Milkman, the core issue of the reform is granting legal status to those illegal immigrants already in the country. There are about 20 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and the biggest majority of them are from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Eight million of them are in working life depending on the estimates.
Illegal immigrants are easily exploited
The people opposed to illegal immigrants accuse them of driving down wages and taking away America jobs.
- In reality illegal immigrants perform low-paid and at time dangerous jobs which Americans do not accept, says Silverman, who runs a legal counseling for immigrants. The current minimum wage in California is 8 dollars an hour. Silverman knows that illegal immigrants at worst earn only four dollars an hour.
- For instance in the construction sector illegal immigrants are paid more than the minimum wage but less than those belong to a trade union, Silverman explains.
Illegal workers are also entitled to legally stipulated minimum wage, break hours and other related benefits but many dare not demand them.
Silverman also considers granting legal status to illegal immigrants already in the country as an important factor in improving in the situation of illegal immigrants
- In that case illegal immigrants would also dare join trade unions.
In Mexico and many other Latin American countries the biggest portion of workers does not belong to trade unions. The reasons are several; for example in Mexico the role of unions is to protect employers and not the interest of the worker.
Second class citizens
Immigrant reform would raise wages and would also resolve many other current problems. Illegal immigrants are for instance outside the health care system and many do not dare go to the hospital for fear of immigration officials.
- They cannot procure driving license and many are compelled to drive to work, says Silverman.
Illegal immigrants often work on farms, in factories, the service and construction sectors. The labour of illegal immigrants is important, especially for the economy of California. Cheap and flexible work force has held prices low and enabled economic growth.
A big majority of employers hiring illegal immigrants demand a social card for purpose of ensuring that a worker has good sight and also to avoid problems. In the United States an employer cannot be punished for hiring one who has produced a social security number.
For instance, in Mission, the Latino part of San Francisco a falsified social security card can be procured for 75 dollars and a Green card for 150 dollars, says Quintano.
Also those using falsified social security cards are taxed normally.
- However, they do not receive anything in return for their taxes, professor Milkman observes.
According to Milkman, officials have lately tightened the inspection of genuine social security cards. Employers are more vigorously demanded to clarify the status of workers and sack the illegal ones.
According to Milkman, a large portion of employers would however, like to act legally if it was possible to do that.
- A large public is rather divided in their opinion, says Milkman.
A majority of Americans support granting legal status to those illegal immigrants in the country. At the same time a majority of Americans wants to limit illegal immigrants to the United States. Latino Americans and the Asian population are more critical of increased surveillance of the Mexican border than the mainstream population.
