A Report From Long Island

The Guardian (UK) reports of a shortage of workers in the elite enclave of Long Island in New York.  “[B]armen are disappearing from beach bars, waiters from the lobster-and-champagne benefit parties and cleaners from the holiday mansions.”  ‘The Latino community are living in uncertainty and fear,’ said Sister Margaret Smyth, the head of a church group in Riverhead, one of the poorest areas of Long Island. ‘As a result of the crackdown, we’ve created a new underclass of women and children. Their men have been deported but they want to stay because they want their children educated. Before, people were poor; now they are extremely poor.’   Hotels, restaurants and gardening contractors predict a shortage of workers. Every day in the parking lot of the 7-11 convenience shop on the main road in Southampton, more than a hundred Mexican, Honduran and Guatemalan day laborers. A group of protesters – Long Island’s “Minutemen” – hold ‘No Amnesty’ placards and shout insults.

Latino laborers are estimated to make up 20 per cent of the Long Island workforce.

KJ