Working With A Hispanic Person—Cheaper Than Working With An American Person
01/26/2008
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From the Dairy Initiatives Newsletter at the University of Minnesota there's a story called Working With a Hispanic Person. [Some useful answers to questions about the Hispanic labor force, culture, and work ethic By MARCO LOPEZ, Monsanto Dairy Business, Volume 10 Issue 1 Spring 2001]

Here are couple of samples

Q: I have heard that family is very important to Hispanics. What should I take into account as I work with Hispanics?

A: Keeping close family ties is very important for all cultures. However, Hispanic families like to support each other economically and morally. Most Hispanics come from large families where one house may be the shelter for two or three families, allowing them to develop and maintain close family ties. In the majority of cases, men seek work to support the family while women stay at home and care for the family.

also
Q: Do Hispanic women work outside of the home as frequently as U.S. women? A: No. Typically, the men work to support the family and the women stay home and care for the family.
Of course, the fact that American families are less likely to have stay-at-home moms than Mexicans is caused by two different factors—the fact that Mexicans don't think much of women's rights, and the fact that American families need two incomes partly to pay for the cost of immigration through income tax.

It's pretty clear that in spite of talking about Hispanics, Latinos, and whatever, the author is talking mostly about recent Mexican immigrants, especially when he says "However, most Hispanic employees prefer to take two to four weeks of time off or vacation during December for Christmas to visit relatives. "

And this is just useless:

 Q: I understand that the level of education and experience can vary a lot from person to person, just like our local folks. Is this true? A: Yes. The level of education will vary from illiterate to college graduates. Most agricultural migrant workers come from poor rural areas where, quite often, they have to quit school to take a job and help contribute to support the family. However, a few manage to graduate from high school or college.
In fact, Mexican immigrants are much more likely to be illiterate in English and Spanish than American workers, much less likely to be high school graduates than American workers.

There's a whole genre of articles on working with the Hispanic worker—what we need is articles on working with the American worker.

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