Peter Pae: New Orleans' Rebuilding May Change City's Ethnicity/Race Composition
Most of the signs are handwritten and simply worded, such as "Workers Wanted" or "Need 50 Laborers Now!"
Word has gotten out and each morning day laborers -- who come from Central America and Mexico by way of California, Texas and Arizona -- gather on street corners in the Kenner and Metairie neighborhoods on the western edge of the city.
Lured by jobs paying $15 to $17 an hour, the Spanish-speaking day laborers have flooded into New Orleans to haul out debris, clear downed trees, put in drywall and perform other tasks as rebuilding takes hold in the city. Specialized roofers can make $300 a day.
Contractors know the new day-labor pickup spots. By noon, a tree-trimming firm hires the last available hand on Williams Boulevard near Interstate 10.
"We've never had Hispanic day laborer sites. That's a totally new phenomenon," said David Ware, a longtime New Orleans immigration lawyer.
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Even after the construction work dries up, which isn't expected for a year or two, there will be a huge demand for waiters, cooks, janitors and maids -- and Latinos are likely to fill many of those jobs.
"They may be the new service class in New Orleans," said Lawrence Powell, a historian at Tulane University. "It only takes a few people to put down roots and begin the chain of migration. I'm wondering if we're seeing the first signs of a population swap."
For decades, the city's low-wage service industry was dominated by African Americans, many of whom lived in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina and evacuated to other cities. According to a poll conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, less than half the Katrina evacuees living in Houston-area shelters plan to return.
"I don't know how many African Americans are left in the city, but it's not that many," Powell said. "There is not enough labor to rebuild the city, and filling the vacuum are the Hispanics."
Fueling the new wave of Latino residents in New Orleans will be the availability of low-cost housing, as many locals abandon homes that have been damaged by the hurricane. The newcomers will stay, said Ware, the immigration lawyer, "because they can buy distressed property pretty cheaply."
Word has gotten out and each morning day laborers -- who come from Central America and Mexico by way of California, Texas and Arizona -- gather on street corners in the Kenner and Metairie neighborhoods on the western edge of the city.
Lured by jobs paying $15 to $17 an hour, the Spanish-speaking day laborers have flooded into New Orleans to haul out debris, clear downed trees, put in drywall and perform other tasks as rebuilding takes hold in the city. Specialized roofers can make $300 a day.
Contractors know the new day-labor pickup spots. By noon, a tree-trimming firm hires the last available hand on Williams Boulevard near Interstate 10.
"We've never had Hispanic day laborer sites. That's a totally new phenomenon," said David Ware, a longtime New Orleans immigration lawyer.
...
Even after the construction work dries up, which isn't expected for a year or two, there will be a huge demand for waiters, cooks, janitors and maids -- and Latinos are likely to fill many of those jobs.
"They may be the new service class in New Orleans," said Lawrence Powell, a historian at Tulane University. "It only takes a few people to put down roots and begin the chain of migration. I'm wondering if we're seeing the first signs of a population swap."
For decades, the city's low-wage service industry was dominated by African Americans, many of whom lived in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina and evacuated to other cities. According to a poll conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, less than half the Katrina evacuees living in Houston-area shelters plan to return.
"I don't know how many African Americans are left in the city, but it's not that many," Powell said. "There is not enough labor to rebuild the city, and filling the vacuum are the Hispanics."
Fueling the new wave of Latino residents in New Orleans will be the availability of low-cost housing, as many locals abandon homes that have been damaged by the hurricane. The newcomers will stay, said Ware, the immigration lawyer, "because they can buy distressed property pretty cheaply."