Some O.C. Businesses Could be Short-staffed This Summer

[longnecker]

OCEAN CITY, Md.- Some Ocean City businesses may be a bit short-staffed this summer.
The federal government is cracking down on Eastern European students coming to the U.S. to work in such places as Ocean City and Delaware beaches on what are called J-1visas.
Anne Marie Conestabile, program director for United Work and Travel in Ocean City, said the restrictions came because some students were negatively taking advantage of their privilege of being in the country.
"Over all in our country you are going to see a reduction in the numbers," Conestabile said. "There have been some sanctions placed in certain countries in the Eastern European block and so you will see fewer students come here. There is more scrutiny in the investigation in prior to them arriving here."
For nearly 50 years, Tony Russo of Tony's Pizza along the Ocean City Boardwalk has depended on hard workers in making his restaurant run.
"I hire 90 to a 100 employees a year," Russo said, "Eighty percent are foreign kids and 20 percent are Americans."
This year especially with summer coming, Russo said he isn't sure how the business will do.
"We like them (European students workers) because they do the job right," he said, "They are born to work. They are not coming over here to party, they are coming here for work."
Some other boardwalk business owners like Tom Griffith of Geez Teez said he will not really feel the impact of not having enough European students in the area looking for work.
"I'm not worried at all, I still think there's going to be a flood of help walking around and people looking for help," Griffith said. "I have been working on the boardwalk for a long time and surprisingly this year we've had more Americans applying for jobs and this is really the first year I have noticed that."
As far as Russo is concerned, he said he is hoping he has enough help to handle the summer tourist season.
"We are going to pray to God, that they (workers) come back and that we will have a good summer," Russo said, "If you have no employees you no business."
Conestabile said this year she is expecting nearly 3,000 foreign workers to arrive. She said that is 1,000 fewer students than last year.
http://www.wboc.com/story/18067056/f...-in-ocean-city

[childOfLacroix]

I can see why they need foreign labor. There aren't that many Americans living down there year-round, and--let's be realistic--most Americans are not going to uproot their family and move for a $7.00/hour temp job. In fact, anyone who does such a thing has no financial sense at all; the job will be over before you've even paid for the move. Then what? For this reason, seasonal jobs, whether scooping ice cream in summer tourist areas or picking crops, have always predominantly been filled by foreign migrant laborers.

What I don't understand are all these different visa types. There should only be one kind of visa: the kind that lets you immigrate here, period. You should either be allowed to come here or not. Since these kids do come here to work, not collect welfare, and they are filling slots where there are true labor shortages (not stealing jobs from Americans), I don't understand the problem.

[cracker]

That's really a shame. I got to know a lot of really interesting people from a lot of interesting places working at the beach.

[childOfLacroix]

It's going to hammer these businesses. Americans aren't going to flock down there and apply for these jobs just because the government wants them to. The locals will be able to fill some of the gap, but not all of it, probably not most of it. There just aren't many people living in that area year-round.

Unfortunately, this is being done for only one reason: so that the gov't can point to it and claim it has "done something" about immigration.

[longnecker]

It's going to hammer these businesses. Americans aren't going to flock down there and apply for these jobs just because the government wants them to. The locals will be able to fill some of the gap, but not all of it, probably not most of it. There just aren't many people living in that area year-round.

Unfortunately, this is being done for only one reason: so that the gov't can point to it and claim it has "done something" about immigration.

There are plenty of people in lower Sussex and Salisbury , Md who need jobs. Not unreasonable to expect someone to comute right down Rt 50. There are also plenty of high school and college students. Most of them speak English and know how to make change in American money. May be a little rough at the end of the season as schools go back.