Undocumented Workers and Students

Undocumented Workers and Students

Transcript

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  When history is written, they're goingto talk about today at Navy Pier,and how this was the beginning of the end of our brokenimmigration system.It's historical how here in Chicago,the city of immigrants, we have these many dreamers coming inand wanting to seek assistance to becominga permanent part of this society's fabric.

Among the population of undocumented Asian American immigrants are workers and students. Undocumented immigrant refers to an individual who does not possess the proper paperwork to work and reside permanently in the United States. Undocumented workers and students enter the United States through myriad ways and generally face difficulties at work, school, and in their communities of residence due to their lack of legal status.

Modes of Entry

Like other undocumented immigrants, undocumented workers and students from Asia often enter the United States with documentation such as tourist visas but lose their legal status by overstaying the terms of their temporary visas and opting to settle in the United States permanently. Undocumented workers come to the United States on tourist visas because other means of entering the country, such as through family reunification visas, take a very long time. People do not want to wait decades and more to join their relatives, as is often the case for family reunification applicants. Many undocumented workers bring their children with them. These children are then enrolled in the American public school system as students. They often remain undocumented over the course of most of their lives.

Other undocumented workers enter the United States on short-term employment visas like the H1B. While these visas offer workers the opportunity to get permanent residence, it is only upon successful sponsorship by the workers' employer. In some cases, migrants' employers fail to sponsor them, yet migrants' financial obligations to support their families in their home countries may force them to choose to continue working. If migrants' decide to continue working and to ultimately settle in the United States beyond the terms of their temporary employment visas, they lose their legal status and are thereby rendered undocumented.

Meanwhile, there are those who enter the United States under student visas but may leave school to work at a full-time job. If these individuals do not change their visa status before accepting a full-time job, they are technically in violation of the terms of their visas and become undocumented.

Employment Issues and Challenges

Their lack of legal status, along with their lack of English proficiency and racist hiring practices, [Page 913]generally prevents undocumented workers from getting jobs in the formal sector. Those who secure employment in the informal sector get jobs as construction workers, caregivers, domestic workers, and the like. Undocumented immigrants often get employment, whether it is in the formal or informal labor market, in immigrant enclaves such as Koreatowns or Chinatowns. Immigrants often move between formal and informal sector employment. Though formal employment is generally considered better than informal employment because formal employment generally offers higher salaries and benefits, there is research that finds that informal employment can offer some advantages for immigrants, particularly the undocumented, including flexibility (that is, employers are not stringent about immigrants' educational backgrounds or possession of credentials; employers do not investigate immigrants' legal status; employers give workers more time to shape their schedules, and so on).

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