There was a lot of talk at the GOP convention about the mechanics of the American Dream, the struggling immigrant workers in various politicians’ pasts. Marco Rubio waxed on about his Cuban parents, who worked low-wage jobs, late into the night, so their son could achieve more.
We didn’t hear so much about immigrant workers today. So here is someone to consider: Maria Elena Lora, 52, a legal immigrant from Colombia, now living in Revere. In her native country, which she fled because of violence, she held a master’s degree in special education and worked with preschool kids who had Down syndrome and autism. In Massachusetts, she cleans offices.
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Thank you Joanna for the examples and for this article. Too bad the Mittster can't talk about the only decent policy initiative he ever supported.
Great article! It's a great example of why the Affordable Care Act should have seperated healthcare from jobs. The delivery of healthcare through employers has many problems: You lose your jobs, you lose your healthcare ... small business don't want to grow beyond that 20 FTE boundary ... if you want to change jobs you have to make sure a new employer's insurance would cover all the family doctors & dentists. And of course the other factor in play for Lora is the economy, with a robust job market Lora and some of the other folks with a great skill set would find other jobs, the folks left at the cleaning company would have more leverage and get more hours.
You don't say how long Maria has been in the US, but I assume it has been at least a few years. Filipa has been here since 2003 - yet both women spoke to you "through a translator". If they want to take part in The American Dream perhaps they should do what millions of immigrants before have done - learn English!
Gee, do you think Lora comes home tired from that job? It also seems she was raising kids during those years. Most immigrants do learn basic English when it is possible, and many have had practice reading and writing English in their native country in school. But a basic level of a language is not sufficient to speak fluently and respond to shades of meaning in an interview. The many immigrants I have met through volunteer work are highly motivated to learn English and integrate into American life, but the demands of work and family interfere with their progress.
@E-subscriber: So you think the "good" immigrants from the turn of the last century learned English? I grew up in an Italian immigrant community. The adult immigrants learned a broken English sufficient to complete manual labor jobs. Only the child immigrants learned English well-enough to branch beyond the unskilled worker group. Hearing Italian spoken in the markets and corner stores was the norm. My mother was lucky, her (undocumented)immigrant father learned his English as an adult from her public school educated immigrant mother. She made everyone in the house speak English to him so that he could rise up to be supervisor in a shoe factory. Still, when he died in the 1970s, his English was heavily accented and he preferred Italian when speaking and reading. Please do not romance the good, old days because of your current prejudices.
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Hey Ms Weiss, didn't Mr. Obama add over 100,000 unemployed illegal, unauthorized, non-citizens to that long line of unemployed American citizens? Poor, poor what's her name is working at a job after all her education and training. Well, 'folks" lets take a look at all our fellow Americans languishing in those long lines waiting for ANY employment, There are millions of unemployed Americans you seem to have forgotten as you slathered your sympathy on Poor Maria. Your disdain for the GOP convention markes you as worthy of being an unemplyed "journalist". This column is no more than a political speach in very transparent disguise. Why isn't some poor, underemployed Smith's, Calistheno's or Polski's at least as worthy of your sympathy? Yes, I feel bad for Maria. I wish things were easier for her. But, she could have stayed in Columbia. She had a choice. She chose what she has and what she does.
Nobody owes you a living. if you don't like your job, find a better one or shut up. One big pity party for the gimme crowd. (And I am a janitor by the way).