The New Recruits

The future of the remodeling workforce is alive and well in Lincoln, Neb., where the nine employees of Brighton Construction are still excited about their careers in a profession that young white American guys — let's face it — aren't exactly flocking to in droves.

At the top is Fernando Pagés Ruiz, president, who grew up in Argentina and New York, speaks several languages, studied art and became a contractor in Los Angeles, and moved to Lincoln in 1992, drawn by its strong public schools and thriving construction market.

There are Anselmo Cazun Mijangos and his brother Leon, young Guatemalans who are outstanding painters but will gladly take on other tasks, from carpentry to welding to IT work. There is Anh Tran, who emigrated to Lincoln from central Vietnam in 1990 and is remarkable with numbers, Pagés says.

There's also carpenter Esteban Lisak, born in Argentina to Russian parents; carpenters Mario and Jaime Perez Garcia, from Mexico; and even three native-born Americans: Ron Carroll, a superintendent from Virginia and one of the few black trim carpenters in Lincoln; and a married couple named Larry and Barbara Douglas, native Nebraskans who are construction manager and sales/purchasing manager, respectively.

“I don't reject someone who has an accent,” says Pagés, shown with employees Barbara Douglas, Ron Carroll, and Anh Tran (left to right). And, “I don't have turnover.”

Photo Credit: Blair Jensen

Brighton Construction is diverse by design; its niches include affordable housing and multi-cultural clients. Pagés is also a diversity consultant and a published author. But he genuinely enjoys being with people from diverse cultures; warming up to unfamiliar accents and customs isn't that different from acquiring a taste for sushi or hummus, he says.

More to the point, he wants other remodelers to know that it's really not that difficult — or risky — to successfully, profitably, and legally employ immigrants. Yes, you may need to take a bit more time to get to know one another and to train them in your company's ways. But the payoff is, more often than not, worth it. “Regardless of your opinion,” Pagés says, “most of the up-and-coming workforce is foreign-born.”

The geographic bull's-eye of the U.S. map, Nebraska is typically one of the last places where coastal-born trends eventually drift. In the context of ethnic diversity, this means that when Pagés moved to Lincoln 15 years ago, just 2% of the city's population was non-white. “I went to the Lincoln Hispanic Center and there were no Hispanics!” he says wryly.

The intervening years have brought dramatic change to Lincoln as they have to other small cities. Pagés says that non-whites comprise 15% of the city's population today, with people from Sudan and Iraq's Kurdish territory rounding out the larger mix of Asians, Latin Americans, and Eastern Europeans. “The population grew from refugee relocation primarily,” he says, “but also from families moving in to consolidate family groups. Foreigners do that.”

Employees and clients of Brighton Construction are largely foreign-born. “If it's happening here, it's happening everywhere,” says Fernando Pagés Ruiz, shown with Anselmo Cazun Mijangos.

Photo Credit: Blair Jensen

Needless to say, foreigners are doing that all over the country, with improbable places absorbing the largest recent impact. (See “Immigration Snapshots,” at right.) What's more, when remodelers wonder who will step in when their aging carpenters hang up their toolbelts, the answer seems obvious. On average, immigrants are younger than the U.S.-born population; but also, anecdotally, they are more drawn to occupations that young Americans are rejecting en route to the “knowledge economy,” spurred on by cutbacks in vocational education and growing pressure to attend college.

“No one grows up saying, ‘Oooh, I'm going to be a carpenter!' anymore,” says remodeler Ron Cowgill, who owns D/R Services Unlimited in Glenview, Ill. Most of the vocational schools in his area have closed, and those that remain may face their biggest threats in ambitious parents and high school guidance counselors. Cowgill says his nephew was discouraged from going to an auto trade school because “they told him he was too smart.”

“There just aren't as many 17- and 18-year-old white kids out working their summers doing construction anymore,” says Troy Hilton, a former Big50 remodeler who is now a project superintendent with Progressive Builders, in Fort Myers, Fla. “But we can find 10 Hispanic guys for every job opening we have.”

"If your perception is that someone is not good because of a cultural bias, you may lose out on someone who's really talented,” says Pagés (left), shown with Esteban Lisak.

Photo Credit: Blair Jensen

Tim Wallace, owner of T.W. Wallace Inc. in Arlington, Va., says that when he went into business in 1972, “there were almost no immigrants, period,” in the construction work-force. Today, seven of his nine employees are Hispanic. One is Nery Munzon: Since 1999, the Guatemalan has worked his way up from laborer to carpenter, and his boss wants to promote him to lead carpenter. Remodelers shouldn't “be afraid of us just because we're immigrants,” Munzon says. “We start from zero, and we come to this country to start a new life and do the best we can.”

More than having sheer numbers in their favor, immigrants have attributes that make them excellent employees, several remodelers say. Echoing others, Wallace notes that “Hispanics don't mind doing physical labor, and they are very quick learners, hard workers, reliable, honest.”

For about 15 years, one of Gary Moffie's “most loyal and conscientious workers” has been a member of his field crew who escaped from Vietnam when Saigon fell to the communists. The employee, Tam Tang, typically gets to work a half-hour early, “never stops working, and, in fact, hates when he's not busy,” says Moffie, president of The Remodeling Co., in Beverly, Mass. “I wish I could find more employees like him.”

Esteban Lisak (left) speaks Spanish and Russian fluently, a bit of Polish and Ukrainian, no English, but is the “hardest worker in the company,” says Pagés, also with Ron Carroll.

Photo Credit: Blair Jensen

“The blue-collar work ethic is alive and well among immigrants,” Pagés says. “They haven't been brainwashed to think that everyone can be a ‘leader' or a brain surgeon. They still see construction work as honorable.” What's more, he notes, they appreciate their jobs and always thank him on payday. Many also bring specialized skills from their own countries; he has known a number of Vietnamese electricians who were electrical engineers in their native country, for instance.

Something else Pagés finds appealing about immigrants is their versatility — a trait that, he says, reflects the “polychronic” (nonlinear, multitasking, group-oriented) cultures many people grew up in. “They don't mind if you interrupt them and ask them to go over there and do some caulking, then trim out a window,” he says. “An Anglo guy is more likely to say, ‘I'm a framer, I don't do that,'” Pagés says.

Another remodeler making this observation is Mirek (Mark) Golczynski, who moved from Poland to the Washington, D.C., area in 1991. He tends to hire other Eastern Europeans because of their flexibility. “They can handle the different kinds of jobs,” he says, from carpentry to plumbing and electrical work. Some of this versatility reflects his workers' educational backgrounds (for example, Golczynski has a master's degree in economics).

From the client perspective, jobs go more quickly, he says, “because I can often handle the entire job with my guys. There is no delay in scheduling subcontractors.” Clients also develop a comfort level in seeing the same workers every day — even on additional jobs years later. Golczynski has helped some employees get their green cards, and for their interesting, well-paying jobs and their supportive boss, they stay with him.

Pagés consults with client Tai Dang.

Photo Credit: Blair Jensen

Remodelers who don't employ immigrants cite a variety of reasons, from the simple explanation that none have applied for jobs, to rational concerns involving legality and language barriers, to more dismissive assumptions that reveal ignorance, prejudice, or both.

“I only employ legal AMERICANS,” asserted one member of the REMODELING Reader Panel in a recent poll. The implication of this and other responses is that most immigrants are here illegally — and that their employers are either willfully flouting the law in order to hire cheap labor (and undercut honest businesses) or taking chances that no law-abiding remodeler would risk.

As with most stereotypes, there's an element of truth here. The Wall Street Journal reports that half of the country's newest immigrants — 500,000 per year, most of them Hispanic — arrive illegally. Low-skilled service jobs (such as construction labor) are often their only option, particularly when they can barely read or write in their own language. Only 49% of immigrants from Latin America are high school graduates, compared with 87% of Asians and 85% of Europeans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“It's a known fact that there are a lot of illegal people here,” says Carmen Urbieta of Urbieta Construction, in Dayton, Ohio. “They knock on our door constantly, always looking for work.” Many of them have documentation, “but you don't know what's valid and what's not.”

Mario and Jaime Perez Garcia are from Mexico. Educating clients is part of the process, Pagés says. “More than once they've said, ‘I don't want these guys. Send me professionals,' meaning white guys. I say, ‘These <i>are</i> professionals. They are the best.'”

Photo Credit: Blair Jensen

“It's awfully hard to identify fraudulent documents,” agrees Jack Pinnix, an immigration lawyer in Raleigh, N.C., and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “But the good news is that the employer doesn't have to be a forensic expert to accept a document, as long as it's not handed to them with an admission that it's fraudulent.”

Remodelers who don't follow the rules with workers — whether day laborers picked up at the 7-Eleven or long-time carpenters — are playing a high-risk game that can end in ruin. But these seem to be the exception, especially among established companies. “The employers coming to me aren't looking for cheap labor so they can shaft the competition,” Pinnix says. “They're looking for someone who can help keep their business running, period. And they often don't have the American workforce that's available or qualified to accept these positions.”

Second to legal questions, the most frequently cited challenge involving foreign workers involves communicating with others who don't speak your (or your clients') language.

“In a perfect world, if I was moving to another country, I would want to learn the language,” Hilton says. In the real world of southern Florida, much of the huge Hispanic community speaks little English, forcing non-Spanish-speakers like himself to get their messages across in other ways. He and others say that they've had limited success by patching together a few key phrases, demonstrating by example, using training videos/DVDs, or drawing pictures.

Pagés meets with the Lincoln City Council to discuss streetscape redevelopment in a historic area.

Photo Credit: Blair Jensen

Specialized media can also bridge divides, such as El Nuevo Constructor, a Spanish-language trade magazine published by Hanley Wood (publisher of REMODELING). In addition, some remodelers require a bilingual supervisor to be on site at all times, to translate as needed.

Although knowing a bare modicum of English may be sufficient for laborers who perform discrete tasks and have limited contact with homeowners, most remodelers agree that those in positions of responsibility, such as lead carpenters, must speak it fluently. Wallace says he is very clear with his staff that the better they can communicate, the better their advancement opportunities will be. He picks up the tab for them to take evening or weekend English classes at a local language school.

Many other remodelers also underwrite their employees' language lessons. For instance, Pagés brings in his own 80-year-old mother to tutor his workers on Tuesday evenings. Mark IV Builders in Bethesda, Md., has sent employees to classes at a community college and brought in a tutor to its offices. Carmen Urbieta says that English-training opportunities are so abundant — and frequently free — that “failure to learn it through one means or another is a copout. Churches offer classes, the Red Cross offers it, the [American] Literacy Council has tutors,” Urbieta says. “And Dayton isn't even a big city!”

Legal immigrants comprise 38% of the work-force and 55% of the field staff at Bowa Builders, in McLean, Va. Besides encouraging immigrants to learn English, Bowa encourages its senior-level production employees to learn Spanish, subsidizing classes when possible, says Kathy Kelly, marketing director. BOWA also selected a benefits representative who is fluent in Spanish and is well versed in addressing the importance of retirement planning from a cultural perspective, she says. This emphasis on career development has helped move several immigrants into senior-level positions, including project manager and assistant project manager.

In a final touch, Bowa CEO Larry Weinberg has been learning Spanish for the last several years, through weekly tutoring sessions. “And every week he buys lunch for a field crew, during which time he puts his training to use by making every effort to communicate with the Spanish-speaking employees,” Kelly says.

Pagés with Anselmo Cazun Mijangos.

Photo Credit: Blair Jensen

It's these types of outreach in particular that may build the strongest foundation for a secure, sustainable workforce. After all, it's not always possible to convince others to do things quite your way. “You can only work on yourself,” Pagés says. “With immigrants, their loyalty lies elsewhere — it's human nature. They need to experience you as a good person. They need to know you on a human level.”

• In 1966, the U.S. population was 84% white. In 2006, it was 67% white.
• Immigrants and their U.S.-born offspring have accounted for 55% of the increase in the U.S. population since 1966.
• In 2003, there were 33.5 million foreign-born people in the U.S., or 11.7% of the population. 80% of immigrants were between 18 and 64 years old, compared with 60% of native-born Americans.
• The largest foreign-born populations are in California, New York, Texas, and Florida.
• Since 2000, the fastest-growing foreign-born populations have been in South Carolina, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Arkansas, Delaware, Alabama, Georgia, Nebraska, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

• Sources: Pew Hispanic Center, U.S. Census Bureau, Migration Policy Institute, U.S. Hispanic Economy in Transition, 2005.

  Doing Due Diligence

  The legal requirements of employing immigrants are “absolutely the same” as those of any employee, says Jack Pinnix, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “The best practice is to do whatever you do consistently,” for all staff. Basic requirements:

• Have the employee complete a form I-9 within three days of the hire (go to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf).
• Verify the documents provided (could be some combination of U.S. or unexpired foreign passport, certificate of naturalization, driver's license, etc.).
• Complete and sign the “employer” parts of the form as instructed.

• Although not required, it's a good idea to copy and file all documents supplied. “But you have to do this with everyone who works for you, not just if they look Mexican,” says Fernando Pagés Ruiz. “That white guy might be involved in a Mafia forgery ring.”

  For specific questions involving foreign workers, consult with an immigration lawyer (find one near you at www.aila.org).

  For a closer look at the I-9, see “Good Form” in REMODELING, July 2006.

  Cultural Cues

  More than the words you say, how you say them can speak volumes to people from other cultures. And what they don't say can be as important as what they do say. Understanding these distinctions and issues will take you further with your foreign employees and avert common cultural misunderstandings:

• Direct vs. indirect: Whereas Americans tend to get right to the point, most Latinos and Asians are indirect, Pagés says. If they seem to be rambling, they may be trying to make a difficult point indirectly. Focus on the relationship: Greet them by name, show respect for their talents, ask about their families. If you have an issue with them, modulate how you say it. Instead of “That's not a good idea,” try “That's a good idea, but I wonder how we might deal with ….”
• Spoken word: Be alert to subtle cues. For instance, saying “yes” may mean they've heard you, not that they agree. In Asia, smiling is often a form of apology, and eye contact is infrequent, but not because they're shifty. In Latin America, pointing is a polite way to emphasize speech — not rude or accusatory.
• Authority and hierarchies: Pagés says that there's little “power distance” between American workers and bosses. Americans expect dialog and buy-in; our opinions should count. The power distance is much greater in parts of the world where the boss is expected to be strong, decisive, accountable. “You have to be a different kind of boss,” he says. Give precise instructions and dress like the boss. Similarly, don't upset their hierarchy. Note who speaks for the group, and give that person the most responsibility and money.

• Above all, show respect. “Many foreigners were at the top of their game at home,” Pagés says. “Their egos may be shattered just by being here.” If you must correct or admonish them, do it privately. “Your values are always with you,” he explains. “Culture shock is when you realize your culture is missing. Many of your employees may be experiencing that.”

  Web Extras

  For additional content related to this article, including a suggested reading list, visit the January issue of REMODELING online. www.remodelingmagazine.com/extras