Just an observation from our travels in The Mitten:
At a Kohl’s, at Noodles & Company, at Subway, at Meijer, what’s striking is this: the labor force is native-born American — which is not at all the case in the Chicago area, where the retail and fast food workforce is largely immigrant. Not necessarily illegal-immigrant-with-false-ID, but immigrant nonetheless. Lots of Indians at JC Penny. Eastern Europeans at Kohls. And mainly Hispanics at McDonalds.
In Detroit, or, rather, the Detroit area, not so much. Sure, of course, it’s not all-white; Meijer, in particular, is, I think, on the bus line, and has a fair number of, let’s say, Store Associates of Color, but not immigrants. And, notably, not teenagers, either, even though, of course, our travels were on days when teens would have been out of school. In general, the workforce was more middle-aged, or even older, and the woman who took our order at Noodles & Company seemed like she could have been working to supplement her pension.
What’s the pay? No idea. Is it enough to support an adult, or a family of modest size? Are these companies cultivating a full-time, long-term workforce, and valuing English-proficiency and general work skills, over the cheapness and flexibility of the desperate? I know (from personal experience — it was my summer job once in college) that the area Meijer is unionized (didn’t do me any good, and the union dues deduction from my already-small paycheck was irritating), though still with a two-tier workforce in which, in order to get benefits, you had do be hired in as “full time” (which meant more than being hired to work 40 hours/week).
Or is this a matter of the economy in the Detroit area being poor enough, compared to Chicago, that there are enough native-born workers willing to take these jobs, even at minimum wage, so that immigrants with heavy accents, difficulty with comprehension, and questionable legality (that is, a negative if it brings a risk of losing your workers to unexpected enforcement, even if it’s a plus to the extent that those workers accept being cheated) are a distant second choice?
Is it that, simply, there are not as many immigrants in Detroit? — which, of course, is a chicken-and-egg sort of thing, because, of course, one reason for that could just as easily be that the economy isn’t a draw in the first place.
Is there some ethical element here? Michigan is very pro-union, and anti-import. (The number you’ll read is that 9 out of 10 cars are U.S.-made, with some dispute about whether this is loyalty to the Big 3 or the practical, everyone has an employee-discount of their own, or in their extended family.) Does a “buy American” ethic extend to a greater distaste of illegal immigration, rather than a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude when it comes to housecleaning and yard-mowing services? (About these, I have no idea.)
Or is my anecdotal evidence, in the end, too weak? — because, of course, you’ll note that I haven’t done any actual research, just wanting to write something up before heading back to the family hanging out in front of the TV, watching the Pumpkin Chunkin “Superchunk” (the substitute for the actual competition, cancelled this year).
As usual: what do you think?
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