Illegal Immigrants (Charlotte, Graham: Home Depot, unemployment, landscaping)

[familymom]

Living in NJ, we see many times packs of illegal immigrants standing on corners looking for day labor jobs. While this is not in every community or town it is in the larger cities. Have you seen anything like this in Charlotte? I do know that North Carolina has seen an influx of immigrants (illegal??), so I believe this question hopefully will not sound races.

[BarbJ]

I don't believe that we have the tradition of day laborers standing on corners waiting for jobs in Charlotte. - correct me someone if I'm wrong. I've seen it in California and the N.E but so far not in Charlotte. Perhaps it's because we have a low enough level of unemployment - especially in the unskilled jobs - so that workers don't have to resort to standing on corners to be chosen for day work.

[JRS_EAV]

Here in Atlanta, we have them lined up at the Home Depots and Lowe's, just waiting to be picked up for some construction project, do they not do that in Charlotte?

[brokensky]

Pew Hispanic study estimates (2006) about 400,000 illegal/undocumented immigrants in NC. I cannot find how many are supposedly in Charlotte.

I have not seen day workers standing on streets, wh/ is a common sight in ATL and indeed, in outlying areas such as Gainesville, GA, where I have witnessed several hundred illegals waiting for day labor work.

I have stopped illegals and asked them if they came here on their own or had relatives who they came to stay with - and if they knew they had work waiting for them - and everyone I have asked (working in my neighborhood) has relayed they came to stay w/ relatives or friends and knew they would have work when they got here.

All of the men I have attempted to converse w/ (my spanish is not that stellar) have been in the construction (roofing, guttering) trade or in landscaping. I was surprised to find that one group of landscapers were all friends/relatives who had come here at various times from Acapulco. Now that is hard to fathom if you look on a map and see how far they had to travel to get here.

[nail in da coffin]

When looking for laborers I simply go to the neighborhoods where a lot of them live, usually around Billy Graham going across to Freedom dr, and have had no problem locating laborers of various backgrounds.