A strong agricultural base attracts many Hispanic immigrants to work in and eventually settle in Madison County.

When many Hispanics first began immigrating to the area, it was to work on tobacco farms, said Rona Comley, advocate/recruiter for the Madison County Migrant Program, a federal program that offers assistance to migrant families.

“The tobacco season was long enough that it kept the family here and employed for a lengthy amount of time,” Comley said, adding that it could last from six to eight months.

Some of the workers would bring their families; others would come to work and send for their families once they were established.

Hispanic men typically would work on farms in southern states before working their way to Kentucky, she said.

In recent years, the number of tobacco farms has decreased because of the tobacco buyout. Now, there are fewer farmers raising tobacco, but most of those raise more crops than they did in the past, she said.

“That’s when a flux of several Hispanic men (age 15 and older) would come in, in groups, and start taking over, like contracting and doing a farmer’s tobacco work,” Comley said. “The men usually live, four, five or six of them together and get by on the very minimum and send their money home to their families.”

Although Kentucky is not a typical migratory state, Comley said the number of Hispanic immigrants locating in Madison County seems to be higher this year, compared with the past few years.

Added to that is the fact that at this time of the year, there usually are more migrant workers, she said.

In years past, there was no question about hiring immigrant workers to do farm work, Comley said. But recent pressure to control illegal immigration has caused some farmers to be more cautious, she said.

“Whether they ask or not, if a person tells you, ‘This is my Social Security number,’ then they go on their word,” Comley said. “I really can’t speak for the farmer, but I know that some probably do ask for it and some don’t. If they don’t have documentation, some may not hire. Others probably do hire. I think it just depends on their other labor and stuff they have. There may be farmers paying cash and not asking.”

Pay on American farms is a stark contrast to what is paid in Mexico, Comley said.

An average hourly rate of pay is about $6 an hour to work on tobacco farms, Comley said. She based that figure on discussions she has had with migrant workers she encounters in her program.

“I have checked around, and $5 would be probably the lowest pay per hour. Eight dollars for just regular labor would be on the high end,” she said. “Someone who has been with a farmer say, two to three years and knows how to run all the equipment, might get $10 an hour, but I think that would be stretching it.”

She said some pay might include housing, but most of the time it does not. In the past, many migrant workers would work off their rent, but it is a dying practice.

“A lot of them will live in town in apartments, a couple or three families together. There may be a trailer or such on the place, or a tented home,” she said.

A Hispanic family who recently moved to Madison County told Comley they spent the summer picking blueberries in Michigan. They were paid 35 cents per pound, which is about 200 or 300 blueberries, and worked about 10 hours a day, she said.

They came back to Madison County to work in tobacco.

In Mexico, a man or woman might have to work for a month to make the kind of pay they can make in one day on an American farm, Comley said.

“I know that if they work here three or five years and send the majority (of the money) home, I’ve had them tell me that in that three-to-five-year period, their families at home have been able to build a nice home to live in,” Comley said.

Despite some who say that undocumented workers take jobs from Americans, Comley said she does not think that is entirely true.

“The farmers would want whoever will come to work, whether it’s Hispanic or non-Hispanic. But it seems like, especially if a group of Hispanics come in and contract a job, it’s going to be more difficult to find a group of Americans to contract the job. They don’t contract together like the Hispanics do.”

Other jobs

Newcomers are less likely to work in farming than those who came in previous decades, reports the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research center.

As the number of Madison County farms has decreased — down to 1,396 in 2002 from 1,712 in 1982 — Hispanic immigrants have begun taking jobs in construction, restaurants and hotels.

Immigrants gradually have established themselves in the area as they have children, who are born Americans.

Many immigrants work for cash, and others present Social Security numbers to their employers, Comley said.

Sometimes, fake numbers are used to procure jobs that require documentation, she said.

“That’s more in restaurants, construction, any kind of public job,” Comley said. “Because then when they (the employer) file that at the end of the year, the number comes back bogus and usually by then, those people will be off working at another job.”

“Their taxes have been taken out,” she added. “They don’t get that back, so really, in essence, we’re getting the benefit of that tax.”

Alberto Sanz, a Hispanic newspaper publisher from Richmond, said Hispanics come here because there are jobs to be filled.

Sanz said Hispanic employees are reliable, honest and hardworking.

There are many jobs available for those who want to work, said Sandra Anez Powell, a Venezuelan immigrant who directs a Foothills Community Action Partnership program for Hispanic women. Immigrants often work at nurseries, in hotels and restaurants and as nannies in the area, she said.

“There are many subcontractors who do cleaning or construction crews,” she said. “As you all will have noticed in the area, anytime you see someone fixing a roof — one of the riskiest jobs — a big amount of time you find a great number of Hispanics working all the way until the sun is down.”

Undocumented Mexicans have little trouble finding work, according to a Pew Hispanic Center survey. The unemployment rate among those surveyed is about 15 percent in the first six months they are in America, but it drops to about 5 percent after that. The work is not always stable and tends to be low-paying.

The recent housing crisis has impacted Hispanic workers, however.

Mainly because of a slump in the construction industry, the unemployment rate for Hispanics in the United States rose to 6.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008, well above the 4.7 percent rate for all non-Hispanics, according the Pew Hispanic Center.

Hispanics have lost nearly 250,000 jobs over the past year because of the construction slump.

Powell said the jobs available to Hispanic workers in Madison County have changed, but the needs of the county have changed, too.

“Everywhere I go, you see people asking, ‘Do you know anybody who could help with baby-sitting? Do you know anybody who can be a nanny?’ And there are people who have come here literally to be nannies,” she said. “Many people might perceive that it is a one-way benefit. But, their children go to school, and they rent from somebody who in turn pays taxes for the school.”

Powell said many people view it as benefiting only the immigrant, but she said they fail to recognize that immigrants are stimulating the economy by paying rent and buying groceries and other goods.

“Immigrants are going to be here,” Comley said. “They do a lot of local shopping. I think there’s a positive impact on our community.”

For the most part, Comley said Hispanic immigrants do what they need to do to be in America. Most are concerned for the welfare of their children, and just want to provide them with opportunities they would not otherwise have.

“Almost all of the people we work with, they want it for their children,” she said. “They want their children to have a better life. They want their children to have a good education.”



Lorie Love can be reached at llove@richmondregister.com or 624-6690.