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CBA professor alerts workforce policy-makers to needed border changes
CMU and Texas A&M professors
propose formalizing regulatory system
Mexican workers cross the Mexico-U.S. border everyday - by truck, bus, bicycle, and on foot - in order to pursue the American dream.
Changes in immigration policies and microfinance loans could help these Mexican laborers, the U.S. government, and the Americans who need the s ervices, said Michael Pisani, a Central Michigan University faculty mem ber.
Informal laborers have been crossing the Mexico-U.S. border since 1848, and the numbers have not declined even after September 11, 2001. Informal work activity, although illegal, is not considered criminal because the work itself could be done legally with government legislation.
"The time is quickly passing where policy-makers may passively choose to ignore the existence of cross-border labor markets," said Pisani, who teaches international business in CMU's management department. "We recommend local, state, national, and binational policy-makers actively engage in a dialogue to regularize the existent binational flow of labor between Mexico and the United States."
Study reveals 40 percent
of Mexican laborers not legal
Pisani and David Yoskowitz of Texas A&M University explored the issues in Grass, Sweat, and Sun: An Exploratory Study of the Labor Market for Gardeners in South Texas, to be published in the March 2005 issue of Social Science Quarterly.
The informal labor market includes ice cream, candy, or other vendors, maids, and gardeners who cross the border to work part or full time, often without the required immigration or work documents to do so legally. Only a small number of laborers are taxpaying members of the formal workforce who receive paychecks and worker benefits.
"The president's 2004 immigration/guest worker proposal would formalize the work processes that are already part of the well-established, entrenched, and vibrant informal economy persistent along the U.S.-Mexico border," said Pisani. "The Mexican president's call for a North American common market may help move policies forward."
A Mexican laborer should have a visa, green card, or passport to cross the border and a Social Security card to work in the United States. Pisani found that more than 40 percent of the laborers did not have the proper paperwork, yet nearly 90 percent were able to cross the border legally.
More than three-fourths of gardeners with the legal right to work choose not to report earnings or employment to any governmental authority, which means the government can't regulate, tax, or collect Social Security from them. Very few gardeners have health insurance, which puts a burden on public health facilities.
Despite lack of proper documentation for entry to the United States or to work, gardeners earn hourly wages comparable to or better than similarly skilled workers in other occupations in the region.
"This informality is made possible by weak regulatory institutions and lax enforcement that benefits both legal and illegal gardeners, especially in areas with bigger concerns than trying to regulate very small businesses or microenterprises," Pisani said. "Few employers require work documents and support the informal labor market through cash payments."
In an earlier study, The Maid Trade: Cross-border Work in South Texas, Pisani found that more than 90 percent of maids and employers had informal work relationships without proper documentation or reporting to the government. In that study, the pay was not above the minimum wage, but was higher than the laborer could earn in Mexico.
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