The Challenging Nature of Recruiting Immigrants

Employers who have businesses that require manual workers may find immigrants can be a benefit or a hindrance in their recruitment and labor strategies. Both unskilled and new immigrants typically apply for jobs that do not pay well and require a lot of physical labor. A natural competition arises in the workplace from the presence of two or more national groups. Employers have the burden to ensure they are hiring the legal immigrants, encouraging fair treatment of all workers and building a team.

Difficulties with Recruitment:

Employers carry the burden of not being discriminatory with immigrant employers. They also must adhere with the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control act that restrict employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. Even though they have to adhere to the law the government is so backed up that it may take a year to verify suspicious documents through governmental agencies. Inquiring about these documents too often can even be seen as ethnic discrimination.

The other problem many employers face is language and cultural barriers. Employers need not publish their advertisements in foreign languages but they must be open to the possibility that English is a second language. Therefore, not hiring employees because they have strong accents, unless it is a provable business necessity, will land the employer into the court system.

The employer must also be concerned with what languages are being spoken during the work time. Any employer has the right, for customer service and safety reasons, to require English only during work time but does not have the right to restrict foreign language use in non-business related functions such as breaks, at the lunch table and during idle time. Strictly enforcing the English only criteria can land you in court.