Posted on 02/20/2006 10:22:42 PM PST by ncountylee
Since Hurricane Katrina swept ashore along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico last August, business owners in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have struggled to rebuild and to reopen.
A shortage of building materials has stalled reconstruction for many companies, for others a shortage of workers has stymied efforts to revive production and distribution of their goods and products.
With hundreds of thousands of residents instantly scattered across the country, many of them finding new jobs where they suddenly found themselves building new lives, workers from Mexico were hired to fill the labor gap on the Gulf Coast.
The influx of Mexicans -- some in the United States illegally and many others with temporary work visas -- raised concerns among some people that the region would experience instant and possibly permanent demographic shifts.
Statistical surveys have not been completed on the ethnicity of people fleeing or entering Gulf Coast states, but the complexion of the workforce in hurricane-damaged areas has changed, at least by anecdotal accounts. Evidence of that could be seen in Houma, La., in December, on a visit to Motavatit Seafoods, one of the state's largest harvesters and processors of oysters, where a group of Mexican workers had joined the locals.
A return to Houma earlier this month found the group of women -- all from the same village -- hard at work and living in a group home that Motavatit Seafoods maintains for them.
While the evacuees are staying in motels around the country demanding more money from FEMA.
Just harvesting the oysters to increase the sexual appetite that creates the anchor babies who consume the overburdened social services and grow up to commit the crimes that Americans won't harvest.
Aw shucks!
BOO HISS, hope you get shucked soon
No big deal going on here. In the southwest, Mexicans always move to the black areas first, then as they grow in numbers, the blacks are forced out. They are simply following sound tactics. Why should New Orleans be different?
Just doing jobs that even blacks won't do, said someone a couple of months back. (/S/)
Bye, bye, New Orleans. Hello, Nuevo Orleans.
Maybe the black folk need to learn something from an ethnic group that, whatever their faults, actually start their own businesses and, in many areas, hava a higher rate of home ownership.
come on Clemenza, we are not allowed to think like that.
The teens drive Corvettes and 4 wheel drive trucks off daddy's money, and college kids don't need to work with the 529 funds their parents put away for them.
I'm frightened for America and the next generation. They'd rather starve than get dirty.
And, to all of you folks who think the illegals are keeping "Amurcans" out through ethnic solidarity, my father took a job when he was a student where he was the only nonlatino on the site. Most of the folks he worked with were from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, along with a few Cuban exiles (this was in New Jersey in the mid-late 1960s). Despite the cultural differences, my father eventually won the respect and admiration of his colleagues. Dealing with such cultural differences enabled him to be an outstanding executive in his latter career.
I don't know what the solution is. The young Americans, of whatever race, don't seem to want to get their hands dirty. When I was in high school, we would refer to manual labor as "Haitian Work" (I attended a private high school in South Florida). Many of those folks made more money than we did at our retail jobs (if we worked at all).
"Stoopeed eez as stoopeed does, senor. Did you say you haf a border somewhere? That's funeeee..."
Actually, if they're willing to work where the layabouts aren't, then more power to them. I just want the Mexicans coming here to do it legally. Otherwise, not too worried. They'll be the next group responsible to subsidize the worthless ones. Wonder how they'll take it?
Louisiana was a Spanish colony much longer than it belonged to France, so one might say this is simply reverting to form.
Another tidbit: The first Asian immigrants to North America were Filipino fishermen who came to Louisiana in the 1700's via Mexico. I had a good friend in college who considered himself Cajun but was descended from this group. He would not have looked out of place on the streets of Manila.
This is more fulfillment of my prediction New Orleans and a good part of Louisiana would become a majority of Mexicans (mostly illegal) following Katrina.
You mean there is a way for mexicans to come here legally and work? What does that make Bush's "guest worker" plan?
Have you seen any evidence that the majority of Mexicans coming here give two hoots about your desire that they do it legally?
For that matter, has the government given much of an indication that they care whether Mexicans come here legally?
They'll be the next group responsible to subsidize the worthless ones. Wonder how they'll take it?
They'll check to see if they have any spare change after they've wired home their remittances.
I realize there is a need for many more laborers to clean up storm damage but, what happened to the people who did sevice jobs before the storms? I know people from Texas who have gone into these areas expecting to be able to hire local talent only to find there is none.
It was happening before Katrina. I started noticing billboards in spanish and of course more and more in the stores while shopping.
The only thing I wished that Immigration would have not busted the one's working in the good Mexican restaurant here. The service and food really sucked afterwards.
I'll bet that Motavitit didn't first scour the surrounding areas looking for non-Mexicans to work for them and live in their company-provided housing.
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