Fransiskus Yangminta, cs
Introduction
Irregular immigrant day labor is probably the least studied phenomenon in the migration
academic field. Yet, irregular immigrant day laborers are the most visible and
the least protected group of migrants due to
their visibility, vulnerability and precariousness. In the United States, the
immigrant day laborers are included in the eleven million estimated
undocumented immigrants. Although the percentage of these irregular immigrant
day laborers is small, their unfortunate and vulnerable living conditions are
the most evident with due respect to those of other
irregular immigrants. Their English language inadequacy hinders their effort to
search for a job, contributes to their exploitative experiences, and consequently
impedes the process of their integration into the U.S. society. Indeed the
miserable conditions of the undocumented
immigrant day laborers should challenge the government to do something for them and encourage the local Church
to concretize the virtue of hospitality by creating a specific pastoral care
for their specific needs, for instance, teaching English as a second language.
The purpose of
this study, thus, is threefold: addressing the phenomenology of immigrant day
laborers based on my pastoral experience in North Hollywood, California;
singling out some biblical narratives that might inspire the reality of
immigrant day laborers and also some magisterial teachings that deal with the
phenomenon; and concluding the reflection by proposing a linguistic pastoral
outreach program for immigrant day laborers.
1. Phenomenology of
immigrant day laborers: Pastoral experience in North Hollywood
Showing up at certain hours of the day (9:00am,
3:00pm, and 5:00pm) at many corners of the intersections of the streets and
shopping centers’ parking lots in North Hollywood, Sun Valley, and in the City
of Los Angeles, CA, many different small groups of people—most of whom were
Hispanics, aged approximately from 25 to 45—used to roaming around while waving their hands at cars passing by, or crowded before the red signal of the traffic lights, to give
a hint to anyone who would hire them to work for a day or two. Some were
employed, some kept waiting at the street corner and some others prowled the parking
lots of Home Depot or Wal-Mart, still others kept roaming around from one
street corner to another, many of whom, if not all, as the clock turned twelve,
began squeezing into various labor hiring-sites
and lining up for a scrap of lunch. These people were immigrant day laborers. They came from different parts of Mexico,
Central America and the Caribbean. I witnessed the scene during my six-month
pastoral ministry with immigrant communities at the Scalabrinian parish of Our
Lady of the Holy Rosary Church in Sun Valley, CA.
Seeing the above narrated heartbreaking scene, I felt
urged to reach out to those immigrant workers
not so much to help them find jobs or solve their tangible problems as just to be with them. This poignant scene of
the immigrant day laborers’ endless struggle for one or two days of meagerly paid
work was like a presence that disturbed my comfort and urged me to be at their side as a neighbor and do as much
as I could to alleviate their precarious living conditions. Having been touched
by the scene ever since the first week of my five-month
pastoral experience (from May to October 2011), I began to take courage and to widen my ministerial activities beyond the ones I
did at the parish, such as teaching catechesis,
serving the Sunday masses, participating in different small ethnic prayer group
activities, and serving food to law-income families at the St. Vincent de Paul hall, the pantry of the parish.
To this end, I spent two days a week to be with the Immigrant day laborers not
only serving them lunch but also above all doing activities that included:
eating the same kind of food together with them; listening to their stories,
dreams, fears, and their common terrible struggle
to find a decent and fairly paid work as well as family separation; and even
joining them in various mass migration rallies in the city of Los Angeles.
Furthermore, my ongoing familiar presence among them helped me to not remain
indifferent to their struggles but to become an active participant observer,
however for a short period of time it was. Considering their vulnerable
dispositions, I asked them to answer some questions that were not offending or
intimidating but simple, informative, and thought-provoking. The questionnaires
I prepared for them included: their ethnic background, migration stories,
family relationships, the challenges of both being on the move in search of work and
waiting to be hired at various labor hiring-sites, the treatment they got from their employers, and their vision of the present
day U.S. Immigration system. I did this analysis in collaboration with CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant
Rights of Los Angeles), an agency that works together with many faith
communities including the parish of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary to protect
human rights and the dignity of immigrants and
to advocate for a just and humane U.S. comprehensive immigration reform.
Frankly speaking, interviewing these vulnerable
immigrant day laborers was a scandalous ministry, so
to speak. It was scandalous because at one point I was mistaken for a spy or an
immigration ICE officer (Investigation and Custom Enforcement), which made the
immigrant day laborers feel insecure. At another point, the reluctance and a sense
of discretion on the part of many of these immigrant day laborers toward
various questions to which they responded, somehow disenchanted me or even almost diminished my desire to continue the
interviewing process at the service of the immigrant
day laborers’ long-term needs including the due process of their immigration
status, a decent and fairly paid work, and
family reunification. It seemed to me
that many of them, if not all, after having done the interview, found it
hopeless to work for a change in the U.S.
immigration system. Ironically, while all they desired «work», however indecent
or low-paid it might be, they were deprived of an authorized status and could
not speak English fluently (many of them could not even speak or understand
English), some of which are the basic prerequisites to have a decent job and earn at least a just minimum wage in the U.S. In
fact, many of them confided to me that the lack of English
literacy contributed much to their problems in
obtaining any kind of job or to build a good relationship with employers.
Scientific studies on irregular immigrant day laborers in the U.S.
The phenomenon of irregular immigrant day laborers has
not been broadly and profoundly studied. Kristin E. Heyer describes in general
the precarious situation of day laborers in the U.S. in her article in which
she affirms, «Beyond a respect for fundamental human rights that excludes the
abuse and intimidation “On the Corner” documents, the principle of the option for
the poor demands the agency of vulnerable populations like day laborers be
fostered…Substantiated fear of reporting concerns such as injury or wage theft
fuels exploitation; as the study shows, employers can and do capitalize on this
“voiceless” condition of undocumented laborers»[1].
In a similar vein, commenting on the unfortunate
living conditions of day laborers, many of whom are included in the twelve
million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., a writer, Lawrence Downes observes
vividly:
«They [the Hispanic/Latino day laborers] are not the
largest group, but they are the most visible, most vulnerable and most hated.
They are also the least likely to get any good out of the immigration bills now
festering in Congress. It takes nothing from the punishing toil of farm
workers, hotel maids, wilderness firefighters and chicken processors to say
that day laborers occupy a position of a particular risk and hardship in these
times of immigration panic. They are silent and anonymous, but painfully
exposed. They are jeered by suburbanites, harassed by Minuteman vigilantes and
hounded by communities with police crackdowns, anti-loitering statutes and mass
evictions. Contractors cheat them. People beat them up and firebomb their
homes»[2].
2. Biblical foundation and the Church’s
teaching on immigrant day laborers
2.1. Biblical foundation on immigrant day laborers
Certainly there are
many biblical stories or passages that echo the precarious conditions of
immigrant day laborers and the command to take care of them, among which is,
the parable of the generous landowner in Mt 20:1-15. A common interpretation of
this passage focuses on the overflowing generosity of the employer or
landowner—in this case, his generosity reflects or echoes God’s
generosity—which seems unthinkable for human logic and based on the society’s
judgment. However, I think before we come up with this interpretation, we need
to look attentively to the precarious and vulnerable living conditions of the
day workers such as their having unstable jobs,
and having a precarious livelihood. A
day-paid job would be the only thing they depend on to feed their family in any
given day. Most probably the wage of a day-paid job is enough for one day’s
meal, without which, a family would die of hunger. All these miserable living
conditions disturb the landowner’s conscience and compassionate heart
and convince him to pay them with the same amount of wages that the other workers receive.
The fair remuneration for all workers at the standard
time, in this case, in the evening, can be alluding to God’s covenant with the
Israelites recounted, among others, in Lev 19:13, «“You shall not defraud your neighbor … and you shall not keep
for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning”» and
also in Dt 24: 14-15, «“You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy
laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of
your towns. You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they
are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the
Lord against you, and you would incur guilt”». Obviously the poor condition of
the day workers pushes the employers to pay them right away. In addition, what
counts little to the employer (a day-paid job) counts much for a poor dependent
day laborer, the stranger who is deprived of almost
everything including land, a decent living standard[3].
Compassion is, therefore, the basis of the landowner’s act of justice. Having
citied the above-mentioned Old Testament passages, one may observe that indeed
the generous act of justice performed by the landowner in Jesus parable in
Matthew 20:1-15 is influenced by the Israelite’s
long tradition of protecting and doing justice toward the most unfortunate
people in society including the gherim (resident-aliens
or strangers) who have no full work-related rights to claim. The complaint of
other workers who showed up at an early hour in the morning is based on the
structural or programmatic kind of justice.
Following the example of
a wise and just landowner, we are also called to act justly and compassionately
by standing in solidarity with the needy, dependent, and marginalized immigrant
day laborers. To do this, we need a real conversion of mind and heart so that
we may be able to think and act beyond the structural justice by offering
hospitality to immigrant day laborers regardless of their legal immigration
status. Envisioning hospitality as a spiritual movement, Henri Nowen asserts
that «to convert hostility into hospitality requires the
creation of the friendly empty space where we can reach out to our fellow human
beings and invite them to a new relationship»[4]. I
may say that our compassion and generosity of welcoming the immigrants in our
midst is the result of our letting go of our preoccupations—manifested in our
selfishness, racism, ethnocentrism, anti-immigrant bias, and exploitative
conduct toward undocumented immigrants—and reaching out to help those in need
especially the vulnerable immigrant day laborers. By helping immigrants meet
their tangible needs, for instance, learning a foreign language, we are
actually becoming part of their vulnerability. William O’Neill puts it
rightly: «For in Christ, one is always,
already in communion with the anawim;
one's identification implies not merely taking the victim's side, but taking
the victim's side as our own»[5].
2.2. The Church’s magisterial teachings on Immigrant Day Labor
There are two particular
magisterial teachings of the Church, among others, that although not literally
mentioned, relate directly to the realities or phenomena of immigrant day
laborers: Gaudium et Spes (Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, 1965) and Laborem
Exercens (the encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II, 1981). In Gaudium et Spes, we read:
«When workers come from another country or district
and contribute to the economic advancement of a nation or region by their
labor, all discrimination as regards wages and working condition must be
carefully avoided. All the people, moreover, above all the public authorities,
must treat them not as mere tools of production but as persons, and must help
them to bring their families to live with them and to provide themselves with a
decent dwelling; they must also see to it that these workers are incorporated
into the social life of the country or region that receives them»[6].
Echoing the wisdom of Gaudium et Spes, John Paul II in his Laborem Exercens, affirms:
«The person working away from his native land, whether
as a permanent emigrant or a seasonal worker, should not be placed at a
disadvantage in comparison with the other workers in that society in the matter
of working rights. Emigration in search of work should in no way become an
opportunity for financial or social exploitation. As regards to the work
relationship, the same criteria should be applied to immigrant workers as to
all other workers in the society concerned. The value of work should be
measured by the same standard and not according to the difference in
nationality, religion or race»[7].
All these guiding principles of the Church are
centered on the human being. The human condition
of a human being must be respected, protected,
dignified and developed especially in the globalized world where workers are
treated like products. There are some points to be considered from the
above-mentioned Church’s principles including: immigrant workers contribute to
the global economy; discrimination of work-related rights must not be
tolerated; laborers must not be treated as products but persons with dignity;
immigrants should be able to be integrated into
the host community; immigrant workers must not
be exploited on the ground of their racial differences or immigration status
and they must be treated equally with other host workers. These compelling and
prophetic voices of the Church speak very much about the many realities that
all immigrants are faced with. However, I would argue strongly that the
practices of injustices such as discrimination
as regard wages and working conditions and the treatment of laborers as mere tools
of production or agents to be financially and socially exploited, are all directly experienced by most, if not all, immigrant
day laborers in the U.S., especially in North
Hollywood where I did my pastoral ministry in 2011. Technically, the immigrant
day laborers are always at the brink of marginalization, discrimination, and
exploitation on the grounds of racial background, irregular immigration status,
low or under-skill and the lack of English competency. The Church’s magisterial
voice is thus, quite far from the reality many immigrants face everyday.
However, I think it is important that the Church continues speaking up against
any mistreatment and violation against the human rights and dignity or
work-related rights of every immigrant worker regardless of his or her
immigration status. Certainly the Church’s teaching on the moral duty to
protect immigrant workers is founded on the theological vision that defines a
migrant as a human being created by God in his
image and likeness out of which a migrant’s basic human rights and dignity are
born and thus must be respected. For this reason, John Paul II in the
above-mentioned Laborem Exercens, accentuates
particularly the same just and humane treatment between foreign workers or the
immigrant workers and the native workers. The emphasis is on the immigrant
workers practically due to their particular necessities or concerns that are
very different from or even more vulnerable than those of native workers
especially when it comes to work-related rights. Furthermore, John Paul II
teaches that the value or worth of every legitimate work «should be measured by
the same standard and not according to the difference in nationality, religion
or race»[8].
In other words, there must be no discrimination on the grounds of race,
language and culture in the worker-employer relationship or among workers themselves
in workplaces.
2.3. The local Church’s documents
on Immigrant Day Labor
The U.S. local Church has been very attentive ever
since the phenomenon of migration occurred between the US-Mexico border, which continues escalating more than ever in the past ten
years or so. Despite the U.S. attempt to close its borders with Mexico by
fencing more than 700 miles, a huge number of new arrival immigrants keeps
increasing coming either from or through Mexico. The presence of these new
immigrants compels the U.S. local Church, the receiving community, to respond
to their specific socio-pastoral needs. To this end, two major pastoral letters
have been written including: One Family Under
God (USCCB, 1995) and Strangers No
Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope, a Mexican-US Bishops joint
pastoral letter (USCCB, 2003). The central point of these letters is the
Church’s call to practice a moral and Christian duty to welcome and stand in
solidarity with immigrants. The response of the U.S. Catholic Church to this
immigration phenomenon is holistic and indiscriminative in its language and
scope. It is holistic because it speaks without polemic about the positive and
negative impact of immigration on both new arrival immigrants and the old
migrants (U.S. citizens either by birth or naturalization) and also justice for
immigrants by advocating a just immigration system that would contribute to the
common good of both the U.S. It calls to stand in solidarity with irregular immigrants
whose human and social capitals contribute not only to the economic growth and
development but also to the socio-cultural enrichment and civilization of the
U.S. multicultural society.
2.4. The local Church’s and the local government’s
responses to the phenomenon
The local Church’s call to hospitality and solidarity
with immigrants has been exemplified in both systemic and charitable forms of
services implemented at diocesan and parish level. In one of their outreach
programs of commission office for immigrants, the U.S. Catholic Bishops uphold
strongly:
«Many newcomers to the United States face
discrimination in the workplace and on the streets, the constant threat of
arrest and deportation, and the fear that they or their children will be denied
medical care, education, or job opportunities. Many have lived in the United
States for years, establishing roots in their communities, building their
families, paying taxes, and contributing to the economy. If arrested and
deported, they leave behind children and sometimes spouses who are American
citizens…Without condoning undocumented migration, the Church supports the
human rights of all people and offers them pastoral care, education, and social
services, no matter what the circumstances of entry into this country, and it
works for the respect of the human dignity of all—especially those who find
themselves in desperate circumstance»[9].
Putting these words into practice, the U.S. Bishops
are committed to making the pastoral care of migrants an integral part of
parish ministry. The outreach programs and activities of the pastoral care of
migrants are identified by three pillars: Pastoral
Care, Education or Advocacy, and Social Ministry. These programs are still
yet to be concretized by all Catholic mission and parish communities in the
United States. As far as the phenomenon of immigrant day laborers in North
Hollywood is concerned, the local Church—Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic
Church in North Hollywood—has been doing some pastoral outreach programs
including: (1) having a group of parish volunteers prepare and serve lunch for
immigrant day laborers; (2) celebrating the Eucharist once a month; and (3)
having a parish commission on migration advocacy network that works
collaboratively with other Christian communities in the diocese of Los Angeles
and in collaboration with a civil organization called CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles). All
these activities are important but not enough to answer the immediate pastoral
needs of immigrant day laborers. Offering English language classes for
immigrant day laborers at the day labor center
should also be an integral part of the parish outreach program. This program
has not been yet implemented either by the local government or by the
non-Governmental organizations including the local Church.
The local government of the City of Los Angeles has
been responding to the phenomenon of immigrant day laborers by creating a
safety hiring-site commonly known as the Day Labor Center. The description of
the program can be cited in the following:
«The Day Laborer Program in the City of Los Angeles is
a public safety program, which allows persons seeking casual labor work to
safely congregate and be matched with employers seeking temporary workers. The
main objective of the program is to reduce the number of day laborers who
congregate in the various corners within the community, instead having them
congregate at fixed sites located in select areas of the City. The Day Laborer
program provides the supervision of the site and community outreach. It does
not intervene in the employment transaction between the day laborer and
employer. There are no fees to employers
or day laborers to utilize the services at any site»[10].
Based on my observation during my pastoral experience
at the day labor center in North Hollywood, I can say that this government
initiative program is good and commendable. The day labor center offers a space
not only to keep immigrant day laborers from
loitering in the streets and shopping centers’ parking lots or being
interrogated by Immigration Custom and Enforcement officers (ICE) but also and
above all, to let them rest for a while after a long day of searching for work, enjoy the meals
served by volunteers, and get to know people from other Hispanic ethnicities.
3. Conclusion:
a linguistic pastoral outreach program proposal (ESL-IDL program)
Learning the language of the host community is an
integral part of immigrants’ integration into that community. In fact, M.
Vedovelli asserts that language as a means of integration into and belonging to
a new society can also be a source of conflict and instrument of
marginalization toward immigrants[11].
For this reason, teaching a foreign language is part and parcel of the Church’s
pastoral care of migrants. In its instruction on the pastoral care of people who migrate promulgated by Pope Paul
VI in 1969, the Church affirms:
« “Anyone who is going to encounter another people
should have a great esteem for their patrimony and their language and their
custom” [Ad Gentes, 26]. Therefore
let immigrating people accommodate themselves willingly to a host community and
hasten to learn its language, so that, if their residence there turns out to be
long or even definitive, they may be able to be integrated more easily into the
new society. This will occur surely and effectively if it is done voluntarily
and gradually, without any compulsion or hindrance»[12].
Inspired and guided by this instruction, I would like to propose an impending English language
program that has not yet been done at the day labor center in North Hollywood.
The program is called «English as a Second Language for Immigrant Day Laborers»
(ESL-IDL), which aims at improving immigrant day laborers’ English
communication skills (speaking, reading, and writing) in their pursuit of work,
in their relationship with their employers or with other English-speaking
employers, and in their workplaces. English proficiency can also help them
improve their working skills and be able to be competent in the day labor
market. In addition, comprehending and speaking English would enable them to
speak up for themselves of any mistreatment, exploitation or any kind of
injustices they experience on the street corners, in the labor hiring-sites,
and in the workplaces. Knowing English would also help them integrate in the
U.S. multicultural society, in the process to having a legal immigration status
or even to becoming a U.S. citizen.
The means or activities involved in this ESL-IDL
program include: (1) providing specific books and other materials for Basic
English Skills, English language or terms related to a particular work, and
information about job-related laws; (2) having some ministers including the
pastor, chaplains, or volunteers from the parish of our Lady of the Holy Rosary
or from other Catholic parishes nearby take turn to teach this English program;
(3) the program is taught at the day labor
center in Sherman way, North Hollywood in collaboration with the designated
staff of the center; (4) the program can be scheduled before lunch for two
hours (11:00pm-1:00pm) from Monday to Friday; and finally (5) the teaching
staffs or volunteers of the parishes or other particular Christian communities
must be proficient in both English and Spanish so that in addition to teaching
English as a second language, the U.S. culture (s), and national laws or
regulations, they may also teach some catechesis or religious and cultural
traditions of the immigrant day laborers.
Bibliography
BIANCHI Enzo,
«L’accoglienza dello straniero nella Bibbia», in People on the move 72
(1996), 11-34.
DOWNES Lawrence, «Day
Laborers, Silent and Despised, Find Their Voice» available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/opinion/10mon4.html?ex=1310184000&en=25d22bcdf5bb1b40&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0
HEYER Kristin E.,
«Strangers in our midst: Day labors and just immigration reform», in Political Theology 9.4 (2008),
425-453.
LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, «Day
Laborer Program» available at http://cdd.lacity.org/emp_empday.html
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Spiritual Life, Doubleday, Garden City (NY) 1975.
O’NEILL William, « ‘No
Longer Strangers’ (Ephesians 2:19): The Ethics of Migration», in Word & World 29/3 (2009), 227-233.
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Cura-Nemo est (22 August 1969).
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AND CONFERENCIA EPISCOPALE MIXICANA (CEM), Strangers
No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope (USCCB, 2003).
VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes (7 December 1965).
[1]
K.E. HEYER, «Strangers in our midst: Day labors and just immigration reform»,
in Political Theology 9.4, Equinox
Publishing Ltd, The Village, London SW11 2JW, 2008, 437.
[2] L. DOWNES, «Day Laborers, Silent and Despised, Find
Their Voice» available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/opinion/10mon4.html?ex=1310184000&en=25d22bcdf5bb1b40&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0 (accessed January 14, 2013).
[3] E.
BIANCHI, «L’accoglienza dello straniero nella Bibbia», in People on the Move
72, 1996, 19.
[4] H. J. M. NOUWEN, Reaching
Out: The Three Movements of Spiritual Life, Doubleday, Garden City, NY,
1975, 54.
[5] W. O’NEILL, «‘No
Longer Strangers’ (Ephesians 2:19): The Ethics of Migration», in Word & World 29/3 2009, 233.
[6]
VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes (7 December 1965), n.66, §1.
[8]
JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Laborem
Exercens (14 September 1981), n.23, §2.
[9] UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS (USCCB),
«Parish Activities to Help Immigrants, Migrants, Refugees, and People on the
Move», available at http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/migrants-refugees-and-travelers/parish-activities-immigration.cfm (accessed January 15, 2013).
[10] LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, «Day
Laborer Program» available at http://cdd.lacity.org/emp_empday.html (accessed January 16, 2013).
[11] M. VEDOVELLI, «Lingua ed
emigrazione», in TASSELLO Graziano (a cura di), Lessico Migratorio, CSER, Roma
1987, 127.
[12] PAUL VI, Instruction on the Pastoral Care of People Who Migrate, De Pastorali Migratorum Cura-Nemo est
(22 August 1969), n.10.
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