Korean restaurants, sewing companies, mega-supermarkets, groceries, and other shops have long hired Hispanic employees. But jobs in these areas are increasingly being filled by Korean workers, as Hispanics leave abruptly.
According to one Korean businessman, most Korean businesses, such as mega-supermarkets, have employed something in the area of six Hispanics to four Koreans. In the past couple of months, however, the rate has reversed; now businesses are showing a ratio of about six Koreans to every four Hispanics, with the number of Koreans steadily on the rise.
Korean sewing companies, where the average rate of Koreans employed was under 10 percent, are reporting the same trend. Other companies have increased the number of Korean employees to over 10 percent, and in some cases reaching 20 percent. Korean restaurants are also tracking this trend. One restaurant owner explained, "The rate of Korean workers has increased rapidly in the past two to three months. In the past month alone, the rate climbed over 10 percent."
What is the cause for this increase in Korean employees in Korean businesses? Most people look to the recent activity of the USCIS (U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement) as the root cause for the change.
USCIS has increased unannounced visits to work sites, hoping to snare undocumented immigrants working without proper papers, and to force companies hiring illegal workers to stop this practice. USCIS investigates workers' status, qualifications, and other documents of identity. Like other businesses, Korean companies have been subject to such unannounced visits. The result is twofold: while many undocumented workers have been removed from their jobs, an increasing numbers of workers have simply fled their jobs, to prevent their being caught by USCIS; this has left empty positions, which are being filled by Korean – and other documented – workers.
Last June was a time of rapid, frequent unannounced visits by ICE Task Forces to Korean businesses – especially restaurants – in Manhattan and New Jersey. ICE agents searched employees for documentation, including the all-important I-9 visa.
Reacting to the recent trend, a manager of a Korean mega-supermarket in Flushing said, "Throughout the year, we have been forced to respond to the drop in our Hispanic employees. We have started to hire Korean workers, all of whom are truly fully and correctly documented for work. Documentation status is the key factor here."
Mr. Kim, president of a Korean sewing company in Manhattan said, "The ICE enforcement has blown like a big wind through many Korean companies. Those left with empty positions have decided to try to hire Koreans. But not all Korean workers are trained for these jobs. Some are not as skillful as their Hispanic counterparts. Yet we are almost forced to hire them since we must quickly deal with the backlog left by the loss of trained and skillful Hispanic workers."
Meanwhile, USCIS has declared that while it continues to investigate and enforce the law against undocumented workers and the companies that hire them, the number of documented, legal workers – be they citizens or immigrants – is on the rise. In the case of construction work, USCIS reports that the number of American workers employed in the trade is higher than the number of legal immigrants, by a ratio of about three to one. Agriculture, fishing, and forestry report a ratio of about two to one.
