“Ask any undocumented worker who has also worked in other states”, suggested Antonio Martínez, “and, no, well, it doesn’t even compare, because here in California they let you work in peace”.
Martínez placed roofs in Texas and in southern Arizona he harvested fruit one summer; In southern California, he has worked “from what I can find, from what is offered” and although the rent seems excessive to him – “it is crazy” – his income is enough to cohabit an apartment, for his expenses and for remittance every two months.
In 2020 he contracted Covid 19 and last year he had a relapse. Without working those periods, he got ahead with loans from his friends and acquaintances, he talked in a phone call.
The circumstances that Antonio Martínez, of 35 years, faces in California are similar to those who live every day about 150,000 undocumented workers or “irregular workers”, according to a study by the University of California.
The state of California has so far granted irregular workers licenses driver’s license, health care services, tuition fees similar to those of legal residents and citizens.
They also have a “sanctuary state” in which police and officials are prohibited from collaborating with agents migration, and a new law will give them official IDs, among other advantages.
But they are also the workers who face the greatest economic insecurity, the children who depend directly or indirectly on Among them, at least six out of ten in the state, are minors from low-income families.
They also initially faced the most vulnerable and deadly conditions in the pandemic, and, although all California residents are at potential risk of environmental disasters, the danger is more latent in the areas where immigrants who work in irregular or undocumented conditions usually live.
This is what researchers found Edward Flores, Ana Padilla, Rodrigo Alatriste Díaz and Karina Juárez at the University of California at Merced, in an investigation funded by the California Endowment Foundation.
Irregular workers make up six percent of California’s workforce, but they perform one of every 16 important jobs and earn at least $3,700 million annually in state and local taxes.
That amount translates to more than ten million s of dollars in taxes every day of the year.
More than half of irregular workers hold positions mainly in factories, restaurants and food services; building; in professional services, agriculture, retail trade and other services.
But despite the fact that their contribution is considerable, “undocumented workers face high levels much greater economic insecurity; double those faced by legal residents and citizens”.
The majority of irregular workers have incomes that are considered below a “living wage”, the researchers concluded.
As a consequence, “the majority of children who live with at least one undocumented family member experience economic insecurity.”
In general terms, 61 percent of the children who live in the households of workers with irregular conditions are minors from families with incomes below the living wage, according to the UC; only 36 percent of children from families with regular workers face these circumstances.
Due to their circumstances, irregular workers faced more risks and havoc by the pandemic, and at least at the beginning, in the 2020, they were more likely to take the virus home.
The study also clarifies that “California is faces the greatest risk of major environmental disasters, including wildfires and floods. Although the risk is high in almost all counties, it is more in those with higher rates of non-citizen workers”, that is, the areas where there is more irregular work force.
The UC Merced analysis would have served to influence Governor Gavin Newsom to approve a state law last week that would grant unemployment insurance to irregular workers, but the governor vetoed the proposal because, he said, the budget to finance a law like that depends on the legislature, not on him.
Although the issue of irregular immigration is once again at the center of Republican electoral platforms, in California the candidates of that party have refrained from campaigning against immigrants.
The representative before the California legislature for the Federation for American Immigration, a non-profit organization opposed to irregular immigration, David Jaroslav, said his group disagrees with support for undocumented workers.
The representative explained that granting benefits to irregular workers “contradicts the federal immigration law”, he assured that they are paid by taxpayers and, therefore, are contributions that deserve to be invested in other areas.
He warned that as long as California grants benefits to irregular workers, it will act as a magnet for more migrants to arrive.