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butterbean · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 2269

Illegal aliens, long a vital component of the nation's agricultural work force, are swapping hoes and spades for jackhammers and feather dusters.
Fifty years ago, as many as 90 percent of all undocumented workers came to the U.S. to work in agriculture-related businesses. But while farms and rural meat-packing and poultry-processing plants still rely on cheap, immigrant labor, illegal aliens increasingly are flocking to urban areas for work.
And with the Washington area's relatively strong economy and building boom, the region is home to one of the nation's fastest-growing communities of illegal aliens, immigration analysts say.
"They're everywhere -- and they're doing all kinds of work," Georgetown University professor William McDonald said.
The types of jobs filled by the region's illegal aliens fall mostly in two categories: construction and related jobs, including landscaping, roofing and general day-labor work, and the service industry.
"In this region, we don't have a lot of manufacturing -- we never have -- but there is a lot of construction, due to the strength of the economy and the growth of the suburbs in this region," said Audrey Singer, an immigration fellow at the nonprofit Brookings Institution in Washington.
"Then there is also a whole slew of service-sector jobs that these immigrants are finding, including restaurant jobs and domestic work in people's homes."
The region's immigrant population is considerably more diverse than elsewhere in the U.S. The most notable difference is that Washington's Mexican population, both legal and illegal, is disproportionately smaller than other markets.

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/business/20070129-123011-9221r.htm