Editorial: Today's Low-Paid Immigrants Are Tomorrow's Managers
How many of today’s $17-an-hour construction laborers are tomorrow’s $90,000-a-year project managers? During the partisan opera unfolding over immigration in Washington, D.C., the question is worth asking. It’s also a good time to re-emphasize that construction needs the 690,000 workers who were protected by the Obama administration’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy—and not just as a source of labor but also as the industry’s future high-skilled craftworkers, project managers, superintendents and project executives.
Statistics gathered by pro-immigration groups show that three out of four DACA recipients are employed and one out of five is in school but not employed. After the DACA protections were extended in 2012, recipients say their pay improved by an average of 45%, to an hourly wage of $17.29 an hour from $11.92. Most research shows that about one out of 10 DACA recipients works in a construction-related job, followed by restaurant employees. Almost half the DACA recipients live in California and Texas. The L.A. metro area has the most (89,000), followed by New York, Dallas, Houston and Chicago. Average age: 24.