The Nigerian cabdriver, the Polish housekeeper and the Mexican gardener are familiar images of the jobs held by many immigrants in the Chicago area.
But now add the Pakistani doctor to the profile of the immigrant work force.
A detailed portrait of immigrants in the Chicago area released Wednesday by the Latino Institute shows that newcomers have deeply penetrated many service and factory jobs, but also have made significant inroads into one of the most prestigious, highly paid occupations.
The study-the first to show how integral immigrants are to the social and economic fabric of the Chicago area-underscores how education and the ability to assimilate affect their ability to succeed.
It also demonstrates that immigration is not just an urban phenomenon. Slightly more than half of all immigrants live in the suburbs. Twenty-two suburban municipalities have a higher percentage of immigrants than Chicago.
Although they are geographically dispersed, immigrants are overly represented in low-wage, low-prestige jobs. Of the 16 occupations in which immigrants are highly represented, all are working-class except one: physicians.
Almost half of all groundskeepers and gardeners, hand packers, and machine operators working in the nine-county area are immigrants. They also account for more than a third of all maids, cooks and cabdrivers.
“The Chicago-area economy offers a plethora of low-paying jobs with little or no benefits, which immigrants have stepped in to fill,” said Rob Paral, senior researcher with the Latino Institute, a Chicago-based non-profit research and advocacy group.
“These are the people who cut our lawns and carry our dirty dishes away. Our economy can’t do without this kind of immigrant labor.”
The report, compiled from 1990 census data, comes at a time when efforts are under way to tighten the nation’s immigration laws. A bill pending in Congress would cut the number of legal immigrants to 595,000 by 2001 from the 800,000 who came to the U.S. in 1994. It also would reduce the number of visas that could be granted to family members of citizens or legal residents.
The study reveals wide economic and social differences among some of the largest immigrant groups. Almost 25 percent of those from India and the Philippines are professional specialists such as doctors, nurses and lawyers. But only 2 percent of immigrants from Mexico hold such positions.
Several factors, including language and education, contribute to their varied positions in the work force. Almost 90 percent of Indian immigrants speak English well, and 85 percent are at least high school graduates. Conversely, almost half of immigrants from Mexico speak little or no English, and more than 70 percent have no high school diploma.
“The reality is that many persons from Mexico come with relatively low education and income levels, and frankly that’s why they are immigrants,” Paral said. “They are searching for something better.”
On the other hand, the U.S. actively recruits immigrants with highly prized technical skills, such as doctors and nurses.
Alexander Obolsky, 33, head of the forensic psychiatry division at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, is an example of the heights immigrants can achieve in this country when they are highly educated and able to assimilate.
“Compared to what I could have done in the Soviet Union, there is no comparison,” said Obolsky, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1977 and was trained at Northwestern University. “Certain occupations (in the Soviet Union) were off limits to Jews.”
Obolsky’s situation is light years away from that of Tomas Rojas, 30, a Mexican immigrant landscaper who can barely make ends meet on his $7.50-an-hour wage.
Rojas, who moved to Chicago with his wife in 1989, got the job four years ago after the Skokie bakery where he previously worked closed. He is still not sure whether he will make the U.S. his permanent home.
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“I do really want to become a U.S. citizen,” he said, “but I’ve got to see what the future holds.”
Mexicans are not the only immigrant group poorly positioned to take advantage of economic opportunities, but they are the single largest group, accounting for 40 percent of the almost 900,000 immigrants in the area.
The proximity of Mexico to the United States makes it easier for immigrants from that country to move back and forth. That is important to seasonal workers such as Luis Gomez, 36, of Hanover Park, who is thinking of returning to his family in Mexico now that the grass-cutting season is ending.
“I miss my family, my children,” he said.
About 18 percent of Mexican immigrants live below the poverty level, but they are not at the bottom of the economic barrel. One-third of all Vietnamese immigrants, a predominantly refugee population, live in poverty.
Some economists, including Barry Chiswick, who heads the economics department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, believe lesser skilled immigrants, no matter what their country of origin, threaten the health of the economy.
“The economy can absorb more low-income workers, no question about it,” Chiswick said, “but the price is depressing wages and limiting job opportunities for U.S.-born low-income workers.”
Chiswick’s position is disputed by others, including Michael Fix, principal researcher at the Washington-based Urban Institute.
“There is no conclusive evi
`The Chicago-area economy offers a plethora of low-paying jobs with little or no benefits, which immigrants have stepped in to fill. These are the people who cut our lawns and carry our dirty dishes away. Our economy can’t do without this kind of immigrant labor.’
Rob Paral
dence that immigrants diminish job opportunties for U.S.-born workers,” Fix said. “The bottom line is there are not a fixed number of jobs in the economy. And when you introduce a population that is productive, entrepreneurial and with considerable spending power-immigrants-the result is that they create a job for every one they `take.’ “
Although the study did not examine the issue of job displacement or wage depression, it did compare the hourly wages of all U.S.-born workers and immigrant workers in the area. In most cases, workers born in the U.S. earn 20 percent more.
“Traditionally immigrants have entered low-status, low-wage jobs and used them as a steppingstone,” Paral said. “The evidence available suggests that for many immigrants that continues to be true.”
Diana Pasieka, who emigrated from Poland 20 years ago, started out working in an electronics factory. Her husband, Stanley, 56, who came here six years earlier, worked in a bread factory.
Seventeen years ago, the couple started their own business, Pasieka Bakery, 3056 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. They were able to achieve the American dream, even though they are not fluent in English.
“I came over to this country to work-God bless America!-because that’s what happened,” said Diana Pasieka, 49, who still speaks in halting English. “Polish people think like that. We all come here to work.”
The Pasiekas’ pattern of success mirrors that of many immigrants. The longer they stay in this country, the more successful they become.
They also are more likely to live in the suburbs.
Dr. Moshe Zamir, an Elgin internist who came to the U.S. 21 years ago, said he and his wife, Ana, are attracted to the cultural opportunities large cities such as Chicago offer, but they are rooted in the suburbs because of their lower crime rates and better schools.
“It’s much easier to raise children here,” he said.