Mexican immigrants are looking for work outside the city in the hope that they will be able to remain in the United States and not have to return to their country of origin.

Mexican immigrants are taking on weekly, monthly, and bimonthly jobs outside New York City, working in places like restaurants, and providing assistance for repairing private property and extra labor on farms.

On Bowery Street, close to one of the fast food restaurants in Chinatown, Mexican immigrants and people from other countries wait for the truck or minivan that will carry them to their destination.

"There isn't any work here," said Lacho Venegas, an immigrant from Hidalgo, Mexico, who was waiting for his ride to a restaurant in upstate New York.

Venegas said that the hours he works and the wages he earns aren't any less than at the restaurants that employed him in the city. "I always work long hours, but there are no longer job opportunities here. At least they give you with food and shelter upstate."

A cause for hope

For many people like Venegas, searching for work outside the city is the only way they can avoid returning to Mexico. For him, it is also a way to continue supporting his two daughters, who are both halfway finished with their studies.

"My family is very worried; I'm alone here and I don't have anyone else except one friend, but I don't want to go back because of my girls. They need to finish their education and become professionals," said Venegas, who, along with other immigrants, sees a solution to the labor shortage in towns located close to big cities like New York, which are overpopulated and expensive places to live.