Immigration has always been an issue in the restaurant industry. A recent post on the Creativity Exchange Blog points to:
“this incredible interview
with British economist Philippe Legrain, author of Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them. Legrain points out the economic value of immigration and of diversity and of the absurdity of current US policy.”…
…“In any case, the US does not just need highly skilled workers, it still relies on low-skilled ones too. In fact, they account for over a quarter of US jobs. Every hotel requires not just managers and marketing people, but also receptionists, chambermaids and waiters. Every hospital requires not just doctors and nurses, but also many more cleaners, cooks, laundry workers and security staff. Many low-skilled jobs cannot readily be mechanized or imported: the elderly cannot be cared for by a robot or from abroad. And as people get richer, they increasingly pay others to do arduous tasks, such as home improvements, that they once did themselves, freeing up time for more productive work or more enjoyable leisure. Thus as advanced economies create high-skilled jobs, they inevitably create low-skilled ones too.”
Many areas of the country are already feeling the impact of the anti immigration sentiment. Undocumented workers are becoming scarce in hospitality. The impact will be exasperated by the passage and enforcement of a law that shifts responsibility to the employer if workers social security number does not match federal records.
Restaurateurs will be forced to review processes to compensate for the Labor Challenge!
