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Job Issue Muddles Immigration Views
"They come over here, in a sense, to replace us," said John Henry Ford, a handyman in Washington who competes with Latinos for day-labor jobs.
(By Darryl Fears -- The Washington Post)
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Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland professor of political science, said black civil rights groups might be doing their communities a disservice. Like President Bush, he said, they are wrong in saying that immigrants are taking low-skill jobs that Americans do not want. He believes Americans reject low wages that desperate immigrants workers keep driving down.
In the Washington area, where Central American immigration has thoroughly changed the demographic landscape, black opinions on immigration are more harsh, said Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center.
"Blacks here have more negative impressions than blacks nationally," he said. "But even at that, they are not overwhelmingly negative toward immigrants by any means."
The Pew survey of 2,000 was taken between Feb. 8 and March 7. Its sample of black respondents was much smaller than the 900 African Americans who answered questions on immigration for a 1999 survey conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank.
Nearly half of black respondents in the Joint Center survey felt illegal immigration was a major problem, and more than half -- 52 percent -- said it had led to the loss of too many lower paying jobs. Fifty-one percent said the country could not afford more illegal immigrants.
As in the Pew poll, black people were of two minds. Exactly half told the Joint Center that they thought the increasing diversity made America a better place. Which is pretty much what A.D. Thomas said as he stood in line for a job with dozens of Latino workers at 15th and P streets NW.
"Years ago, there weren't any Hispanics here," Thomas said. "But everybody got to make a living, to do the best they can." He acknowledged that Latino cliques bypass black handymen. But he took the discrimination in stride, saying they prefer "working with people they're more comfortable with."
Latinos, he said, "have the reputation, true or false, of being so-called better workers." Nearby, the third and last black man in the labor pool, who identified himself only as Damon, for fear that his comments would cost him work, scoffed at that.
"When customers come here, they'll pick a Spanish guy over a black guy in a minute," Damon said.
Staff writer Sonya Geis contributed to this report.
