Lack of work outside the city keeps new NY Chinese immigrants unemployed

Currently, the employment prospects for new immigrants are as harsh as the winter season this year. Employment agencies in New York City indicate there is a lack of work outside of New York, business owners are becoming more unreliable, and immigration enforcement is becoming more stringent. Still, new immigrants have to keep looking for work.

Many Fuzhou organizations report an increase in the number of complaints regarding the unemployment situation. An employment agent on Edward Street, in Manhattan’s Chinatown, said that many new immigrants working out of state have lost their jobs, because they were fired or had to leave voluntarily, and are returning to the city to find work. Some of them cannot get back their referral fees that they paid the employment agencies, giving rise to additional problems.

Mr. Chang, who owns an employment agency, said that Chinese restaurant owners in other states lack honesty. These owners look for people when their regular employees need vacation or when there are only temporary positions available. It is not uncommon for a job seeker to travel hundreds of miles and get fired after a few days, wasting time, and losing transportation costs and referral fees.

Some employers have even worse intentions. They purposefully hire attractive female immigrants and sexually harass them during and outside of work time. Some female employees report they have been raped. But employers promise to pay off the female job seekers’ smuggling fees, leaving the women no choice but to marry the owners or their relatives or to become their mistresses. Because they don’t have a legal immigration status, young, immature new female immigrants often refuse to speak out.

According to Ying Hao Cheng, the secretary at the Lin Zexu Foundation, based on new immigrants’ complaints, many out-of-state owners seem nice at first and draw out the employees to share information about the family background, immigration status, and relatives in the United States. After a while, Cheng states, they show their true colors and they take advantage of employees who have no family in the United States. Chang suggests that new immigrants should protect their privacy from their employers and other employees.

In addition, many out-of-state owners operate family style restaurants. Most of their employees are family or close friends. Only a few of their employees are hired from outside. When these employees face problems caused by their owner or other employees and complain or go to the police, none of the other employees would come forward to testify to the problems.

Ms. Tsai, who owns an employment agency in East Broadway, observes that the Chinese restaurant industry is experiencing some dishonest employment trends. Some restaurant owners do not pay at the rate they advertised. They would intentionally point out the shortcomings of the job seekers in order to decrease their pay. According to Tsai, many employment agencies are silent on this given the scarcity of available jobs.

On online sites where new immigrants share stories, discussions on dishonest employers and employment agencies are frequent. These chatrooms, which provide a space to share their stories, affords them some sort of protection against labor abuse.

By Qian Cho, World Journal, 11 February 2011. Translated from Chinese by Connie Yik Kong.