After immigration raid, Iowa town deals with Somali immigrants

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: AP

POSTVILLE, Iowa -- Scores of Somali immigrants are taking jobs at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, replacing Hispanic workers arrested in a huge immigration raid and forcing a remote Iowa town to make another cultural shift.

Before the May 12 raid at Agriprocessors, hundreds of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants maintained a vibrant community in Postville, a largely white community of 2,200 people in northeast Iowa.

Now the stoops and haunts once occupied by Hispanics are being filled by about 150 Somali men.

Aydurus Farah, a 21-year-old who immigrated from Somalia in 2004, set out for work in meatpacking plants to make money for his family back home in Somalia.
He planned to begin work at Agriprocessors this week, drawn from Minneapolis to Postville by the promised wages.

"They said over there they pay like 13 dollars an hour, very good money," Farah said as he stood outside Sabor Latino, a popular Mexican restaurant.





Read more: http://news.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=353938

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"They said over there they pay like 13 dollars an hour, very good money,"

What Americans have to say about that? the jobs americans won't do

[Truth4Justice]

1. Lots of Americans would work for 13 USD and hour. Lots of them do already.

[pimpbot]

2. Apparently not in Postville

[Tempest]

3. Were Americans even offered the jobs?

Or did the employer do what he did before, choose his employees from a pool of workers who could be easily exploited?

[AlphaCentauri]

4. at least those who were cheer-leading the raids knew there were job vacancies

[Gormy Cuss]

7. The Somalis, as legal immigrants, are Americans.

Whether the employer sought out this group because of a perception that they could more easily be exploited is a different question.

[Tempest]

9. I should have said "local residents"

That's what I meant.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. That's a good question.

Postville is a relatively small community but I wonder whether the counties around it have high or low unemployment rates. If the rates are high then one would expect that there'd be plenty of interest in $13/hour jobs.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

5. Technically, Somali immigrants did not enter the U.S.

illegally (without inspection), unless they came aboard cargo ships in containers. And it is quite possible that, like many Somali immigrants, they hold employment authorization as refugees and/or asylees, which would make their employment lawful.

[AlphaCentauri]

6. some immigrants overstay their tourist visas

but according to the article most of the Somali immigrants are legal

Many of the Somalis who have come to Postville are legal immigrants with roots in Minneapolis, which has one of the nation's largest concentrations of Somali immigrants.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

8. Yes, but technically their entr yin the U.S. is lawful

See, that's another thing about immigration law that hardly anyone understands. Unless you come from this continent, it is almost impossible to enter illegally (without inspection) to the U.S. Hence, the first entry is legal. Whether the person remains after a visa expires is a totally different matter. It is much better, from an immigration law standpoint, to enter lawfully and then remain despite an expired visa, than enter unlawfully.

In any case, as I mentioned in my earlier posts, most Somali immigrants in the U.S. are legally here and legally authorized to work, either because of refugee/asylee status or some other immigration benefit.