Saturday 8 March 2008

MIGRATION-US: Ailing Building Industry Squeezes Remittances

NEW YORK, Mar 7 (IPS) - Wearing a hat emblazoned with a bald eagle and a U.S. flag, Gerardo waited with some 30 other men in front of a 7-Eleven in Alexandria, Virginia hoping a builder or contractor would come by to offer a job. The Sunday morning cold was a minor inconvenience. Lack of papers and, more recently, lack of work were bigger worries.

Sometimes they wait for days without job offers, said Gerardo, 32, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who asked that his last name not be published.

And while construction work pays best, it is increasingly scarce. "We are now getting more jobs in painting and moving," he said.

The end of the housing boom has signaled a bust in construction jobs, a field in which about 28 percent of workers are foreign-born, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics.
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