Danbury Day Laborers Support Farmers' Market at Kennedy Park
Monday, June 04, 2007
34 y.o. Brazilian Male: "I support the Farmers Market and feel that it won't interrupt my work day. I am at the park at 5 a.m. I am fine with the Farmer's Market."
Ecuadorian Male in his 30's: "My bother is not with the Market. In fact I will shop there. My bother is with the harrassment we face with people. I am at the Park to work very hard. Not to cause problems."
Ecuadorian Male 27: "I am fine with the Market, I can buy my food there. I worry and am scared of immigration. It is not good to be a Hispanic in this country, people judge you."
Carlos, Guatemalen Male age 37: "If people come to the Farmers' Market, they will not want the workers there. I am a little nervous but it is one day a week, and workers get there very early."
Ecuadorian Male age 22: "I come to the park very early, I don't think the market will interefere with us."
The CityCenter Farmers’ Market begins July 13th and continues every Friday from 11-4 at Kennedy Park.
The Facts
According to Fairfield County Business Journal,
Each day more than 100 predominately Hispanic immigrants gather at the downtown Kennedy Park waiting for contractors, landscapers and homeowners to
pick them up for a day’s work. Brazilian immigrants tend to assimilate into the city’s Brazilian community and find work with Brazilian entrepreneurs.
Day laborers tend to work for three or four days a week, depending on the fluctuating demand for their labor, said Franklin Pena, president of the Ecuadorian Civic Center. The more coveted jobs are in restaurants washing dishes or cleaning tables, he said, because that work is steady. “It’s hard to find a job in a restaurant, so they have to look for work at Kennedy Park.”
“They work in construction because many were carpenters in their own country,” said Lowe. Homeowners may hire a man to help paint their house or do yard work or a woman to clean house, she said, because “America likes cheap labor.”
“We’re seeing a lot in (the) way of construction and landscaping, pretty much entry-level odd jobs, probably warehouse workers, painting and general house cleaning,” said John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. And more and more homeowners are looking for day laborers at their local Home Depot or Lowe’s, he said, “particularly in lower Fairfield County.”
3 Comments:
Anonymous, 6:55 PM
Danbury, CT
More than likely. SO we will judge you since you are not here by legal means and are criminals who broke the law coming here over the border without papers.