Working as a temp in Trump hotels is not the real deal
Credit to Author: MARLEN V. RONQUILLO| Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2019 17:51:18 +0000
IT is all rooted in the so-called “American Dream,” the overwhelming sense of Filipinos to move to the United States when a window of opportunity opens. Filipinos with no opportunity to get petitioned by blood relatives in the US, or get married to an American citizen, or file for a green card after working in a US government entity for at least 15 years — the three quickest routes — will have to settle for an entry route as a “temp,” or temporary worker.
And those seeking entry as “temps“ mostly secure H-2A and H-2B visas to gain temporary employment in the US, the 2A covering agricultural workers and the 2B covering seasonal jobs, mostly in hotels, restaurants and construction. The H-1B, the visa type used by Pinoys with sought-after skills, sends the visa holder to the likes of Wall Street, big law firms, Silicon Valley, universities, the engineering and research hubs. Before Trump, the H-1B was a clear pathway to a permanent stay in the US.
The two non-immigrant work visas are what preoccupy Philippine officialdom today after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) imposed a one-year ban on Filipinos seeking entry to the US via the two visa types. The DHS said that 40 percent of Filipino workers who get visas under the non-immigrant work programs overstay and that was what prompted the one-year ban.
The official response from our government is that it may, through the DFA, appeal the DHS ban. If I were the DFA, I would just file a routine appeal, then forget all about the ban. Many reasons for this. But first and foremost is this. There are jobs that are definitely better than holding a temp job in the US. OK, I will be more specific. President Trump is an immigration hardliner. He wants to wall in America to prevent immigrants, especially people of color, from moving into the US. But his businesses seek H-2B type visas. And when you get an H-2B, chances are you might be mopping the floors at the Trump hotels. Or dicing onions at his restaurants.
Do you want a temp job at the hotels and restaurants of the man who abets the current anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions in the US? The president who loathes people of color? Do you want to work as a temp at the Trump hotels?
Trump welcomes temps who do the tough jobs of cleaning toilet bowls and vacuuming up the carpets in his hotels but that is all there is to it. Giving these workers a slim window for a permanent stay in the US is against what Trump stands for.
Along the vast agricultural stretches of California, you often see men and women in the orange groves, in the strawberry fields, in the pistachio plantations, with dusty pick-up trucks and old sedans parked nearby. Many of them are seasonal workers from Mexico and they come in under the 2A visas. While Mexicans dominate work in the fruit farms, there are seasonal workers from other countries as well, Filipinos and workers from African countries among them.
The backbreaking jobs available under the 2A visas do not pay that much, probably less than what is paid the temps at the fast-food joints and Panda Express. The 2A workers have to pack their bags and leave the US once the fruit-picking season is over.
By the time the 2A workers reach their home countries, little or none at all had been saved from the money sent during the work season.
This is probably at the root of the decision of these temporary workers to overstay. Nothing or very little is left after the work season is over.
The type of jobs available under the 2A and the 2B visas are not really the kind of jobs that would provide economic stability to the families back home.
Working as temps, say, in the Trump establishments, as the headline says, is not the real deal.
OK, what are alternative jobs for the footloose in the global job markets? With the Trump administration’s hardline policy, what are the options for those who are willing to take on tough jobs overseas, with North America as the desired place of work?
One option is this. Move into Saskatchewan and other frontier employment areas in Canada as many young Filipinos not afraid of taking on tough jobs are doing right now. They move into that cold area to work on the canola fields, the piggery farms and various agro-forestry-related jobs.
The stories the young Filipinos who have moved into these cold and frontier areas center on two themes — the challenge of winter on the negative side and the ease of assimilation on the positive side.
They say you will not encounter law enforcers like Joe Arpaio. Or young men in red MAGA hats who — with smirks on their faces and venom in their threatening voices — essentially say you are unwelcome and you should return to your home country.
There are more welcoming places of work than Trump’s America. And working as temps at the Trump establishments is not the real deal.
The post Working as a temp in Trump hotels is not the real deal appeared first on The Manila Times Online.