Posted on 02/12/2006 10:13:52 AM PST by A. Pole
WEST DOVER, Vt. -- College student Lorena Lama once spent a good part of her school vacation on the beaches of her native Chile, where summer lasts from December to March. But two years ago, she decided to try a new summer experience: a Vermont winter.
While it may sound crazy to New Englanders, Lama, 26, is just one of hundreds of seasonal workers who each year leave the 80-plus degree weather of the Southern Hemisphere's summer to work at ski resorts in some of the coldest places in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire.
Recruited from countries such as Chile, Brazil, South Africa, and Peru, these international workers account for anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent of the peak seasonal workforces of the region's ski areas, according to figures from several resorts. Most are college students like Lama, hoping to improve their English or just wanting to see the States.
In many ways, it's a match made in heaven -- if your idea of heaven includes wind chill. Ski resorts, which double and triple their employment for the winter season, need to fill lots of jobs that last from December to March. These students, on summer break, want to work from December to March.
International workers provide a critical supply of labor for the ski industry, resort officials said. It's difficult to fill all the short-term restaurant, hotel, retail and operations jobs, particularly when US students are still in school.
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(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
can't believe that there are no young Americans that wouldn't KILL to spend a summer in the glory of Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons.
I know someone who spent a Summer working in the kitchen at Yellowstone. It's not that great of an experience.
Take a look at the Hispanic vote, especially how the post 1970 immigrant Hispanic vote stacks up. Hispanics provide the votes for the white liberals, hispanic Democrats in the state legislature are almost identical to white and black Democrats in the state legislature in terms of how liberal they are.
It is little wonder why pro busienss "Conservatives" are hell bent on flushing any future viability down the drain just to make an extyra buck for the next quarter.
I guess the lions must be much more productive that stupid and lazy workers of today.
It is quite evident that you are not a skiier.
The process is best observed in Europe. Liberalism promotes the equality of the declining variety because of misguided belief that even those who are a drag on society must be supported. The result will be that a stronger, more highly motivated variety will enter Europe and displace both the natives and the Arabs. They will come from Asia.
There is no more "buy American" and there is no more concern for fellow Americans. The American middle class has been sold out in the name of profiteering. Every job now that is given to an unskilled foreigner is now falsely labeled "a job that an American will not do".
I disagree. Strength, motivation, success are irrelevant in that aspect. What matters is the number of children. You can have couple of degrees, tons of money, motivation but if you have less than two/plus children you are on your way to extinction.
In Tahoe, speaking Spanish is becoming a valuable skill. Simply to ask the lift operator a question! To be fair, some of these workers do the year round thing, moving between here and the Andes. Many US workers in the ski industry are not as mobile as some of the Chileans, Argentinians and Peruvians tend to be.
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