Jobs situations for immigrants--stories?

[bmaria2 0]

Hello all,

I've hit a wall with my fiance. He's getting cold feet about coming to the US. He came here on a tourist visa and worked for about 5 months. During that time he worked in restaurant kitchens and a small market in NYC. He felt alienated by the US culture. His main issue at the moment is that he doesn't speak English really well and he feels that the only jobs he will get here for several years is poorly paid manual labor. He has a degree in Econ from the best university in Peru and worked there for the equivalent of the IRS for 3 years. I keep telling him he'd have more opportunities, but am I just blowing smoke trying to alleviate his fears? I really don't know, but I don't have the same pessimistic attitude that he has. I know he'd have to spend awhile getting his English up to speed, but after that....? Does anyone have stories of recent loved ones who are non-native English speakers getting decent jobs? Thanks!

[pedroh 21]

it's not gonna be that hard as long as he speeds up his english skills. also it depends on the area where you live, I live in a poor county in NE North Carolina, where your degree doesn't really matter a lot, and after 3 years of living here (my wife's scholarship required her to work 5 years in a high school inside NC, and she was pretty happy here), I found a really good job in Charlotte, NC. the main problem for any foreigner is that US employers can't check the work references from other countries, specially where english is not the native language.. pero los latinos estamos aqui para quedarnos!!

just learn english, and, work hard.. that's all I can say, sooner or later, an opportunity will show.. also, try whatever gives you an advantage or more money, I have a degree in marketing, and for the first time after 3 years I'm gonna use my degree lol, I've been a retail asst manager, a quality inspector, a mcddonalds griller, a box stacker in a chicken plant, and at last, a decent job..

saludos

[bmaria2 0]

Thanks for your response. That's the thing...my fiance has his own business in Peru and he's doing fairly well. He gets to set his own schedule, etc. He's afraid of starting all over again here, which I completely understand. I've tried to get him to see benefits of living here. I've got less opportunities in Peru than he would have here...at least that's what I tell him!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Thanks for your response. That's the thing...my fiance has his own business in Peru and he's doing fairly well. He gets to set his own schedule, etc. He's afraid of starting all over again here, which I completely understand. I've tried to get him to see benefits of living here. I've got less opportunities in Peru than he would have here...at least that's what I tell him!

If he has his own business, work for him. Working for yourself is better than working for someone else, so I understand his hesitancy. Give Peru a chance.

He came here on a tourist visa and worked for about 5 months. During that time he worked in restaurant kitchens and a small market in NYC.

By the way, that's illegal. It's against Terms of Service here on Visajourney.com to condone illegal conduct like that, so I am obligated to point that out. Displays lack of ethics and poor judgment.

[Kil 0]

Greetings form Peru. I am engaged to a Peruvian and am spending the summer in Peru. I am working at a school (K-12) teaching basketball and helping the students with english. I am just a volunteer (didn´t ask for money) but you could find a job teaching english. True you would not make as much money as you do in the US but you could find a job doing something. Most all the schools teach english.

Until he learns english it will be difficult for him in the US. Maybe he could get a job teaching spanish. Or you could move to Miami. But then you will have to learn english. hehe

Thanks for your response. That's the thing...my fiance has his own business in Peru and he's doing fairly well. He gets to set his own schedule, etc. He's afraid of starting all over again here, which I completely understand. I've tried to get him to see benefits of living here. I've got less opportunities in Peru than he would have here...at least that's what I tell him!

[Carissa 0]

Greetings form Peru. I am engaged to a Peruvian and am spending the summer in Peru. I am working at a school (K-12) teaching basketball and helping the students with english. I am just a volunteer (didn´t ask for money) but you could find a job teaching english. True you would not make as much money as you do in the US but you could find a job doing something. Most all the schools teach english.

Until he learns english it will be difficult for him in the US. Maybe he could get a job teaching spanish. Or you could move to Miami. But then you will have to learn english. hehe

Thanks for your response. That's the thing...my fiance has his own business in Peru and he's doing fairly well. He gets to set his own schedule, etc. He's afraid of starting all over again here, which I completely understand. I've tried to get him to see benefits of living here. I've got less opportunities in Peru than he would have here...at least that's what I tell him!

Teaching english is a pretty good job in Peru. A friend of mine went out and taught there for a year with 2 of her best friends she loved it. As far as the Latino thing goes it will never go away... I've had a Costa Rican professor make that clear to me... He has a post doctorate in environmental economics and speaks perfect english. But still had issues finding a job and teaching in his field in the states but it does get better. In the business field though being bilingual is a huge advantage, but the operative word is bilingual, it will be hard for him to excel without english... He can start up a business here in an area of upwardly mobile spanish speakers and do well if he carves out a niche for himself but he'll still needs to learn english.

My husband is in a similar position. His whole family is self employed farmers in Peru and they make good money at it... He sends money to help his mom fund planting and sharesin the profit but he still gets a depressed when he learns of his uncles buying new cars, trucks, land and houses in cash. (the trucks they use run about 40G in US$).

We'll be starting a business when I'm done with college.

Carissa

[LaGreenEyes 0]

Hello,

My husband went thru some trials and tribulations with the job search here. He's from Panama and has been here a year and a half. He took about 9 months and used the "Ingles Sin Barreras" program, got some good grammar books that explained in Spanish the mechanics of pronunciation and grammar, and those things helped him immensely. His English is decent now, but we were running into problems here in Texas for him to find a decent job. Because of all the illegal immigrant stuff, he was being looked at as not good for anything but low paying jobs pretty much because he had still a heavy accent and didnt type 65 words a minute. We decided to move to Miami. There are lots of jobs for bilingual PROFESSIONALS there. You don't even have to speak perfect English, accents are fine..everyone is accustomed to it. After searching for a job there for 3 weeks, my husband landed a great job. I don't think he had 3 interviews in the 4 months he searched hard here in Dallas. I got a job in Ft. Lauderdale, and we are both very exited to be starting a new adventure together.

[homesick_american 1]

Hello,

My husband went thru some trials and tribulations with the job search here. He's from Panama and has been here a year and a half. He took about 9 months and used the "Ingles Sin Barreras" program, got some good grammar books that explained in Spanish the mechanics of pronunciation and grammar, and those things helped him immensely. His English is decent now, but we were running into problems here in Texas for him to find a decent job. Because of all the illegal immigrant stuff, he was being looked at as not good for anything but low paying jobs pretty much because he had still a heavy accent and didnt type 65 words a minute. We decided to move to Miami. There are lots of jobs for bilingual PROFESSIONALS there. You don't even have to speak perfect English, accents are fine..everyone is accustomed to it. After searching for a job there for 3 weeks, my husband landed a great job. I don't think he had 3 interviews in the 4 months he searched hard here in Dallas. I got a job in Ft. Lauderdale, and we are both very exited to be starting a new adventure together.

The only thing that would concern me here is that moving to south Florida is going to make it easier for him to not improve his English, if you get my drift...since many parts of Florida are non-English speaking. I would be concerned that his development in English would come to a standstill and never improve.

[Vi Mazzella 4]

I'm peruvian too, I 've been here in the States for almost 2 years, left a great job in Peru as a tour guide, I used to be a free lance (make my own schedule, good money) and honestly I understand how your fiance feels. I'm trying to convince my hubby to move back to Peru with me. We live in NYC, I'm working for the same company for 1 year and half, good pay, good friends but I'm not complety happy with it.

I find out that is very easy to find jobs here, specially here in NYC, but you can make more money if you (your fiance) speak english. We have plenty of peope that speak spanish-spanglish but not all of them can write and read it.

Good Luck with it, and give a chance to Peru!!

Vi

[rob&ana 0]

I agree that the language will be a problem, however, I’ve seen people here in Pittsburgh working in good companies, whose English is not so good (Indian, Latinos, etc.), with VERY thick accents. I agree with Pedroh that the place you live in makes a difference, if you’re moving to the boondocks you’re not going to have many opportunities.

However, I have to disagree with employers here not being able to confirm your references, because I had a background check when I accepted my actual position, and they were able to confirm my previous work history as well as education (with a little glitch with my university for lack of English speaking people). In my own experience, I have to say that I have not had any difficulty finding jobs in the US, but then again, I don’t have problems with the language.

I know a guy here in Pittsburgh, who before starting to work too ESL classes, and then started working, he is now working for a really big company and making tons of money. It’s true, you might have to take something just below your previous position, but I think it’s not so bad at all, since you could use the experience to get your feet wet, and then opt for better positions. For argument’s sake, it is REALLY tough to start over again (I had to do it), but at the same time (in my case), even taking a position below my previous one, allowed me to be able to buy a house (and get a mortgage) and buy a car (and get car payments), that back home it would’ve been pretty difficult for me to do both at the same time.

On the other hand, if he has his own business in Peru, and it’s going well for him, why not give it a try??

[athena_ny 1]

Thanks for your response. That's the thing...my fiance has his own business in Peru and he's doing fairly well. He gets to set his own schedule, etc. He's afraid of starting all over again here, which I completely understand. I've tried to get him to see benefits of living here. I've got less opportunities in Peru than he would have here...at least that's what I tell him!

If he makes good money in Peru, chances are you wouldn't have to work. Well, eventually anyway. Neither of my married sisters in law work, but I guess it depends on what your definition of 'fairly well' is. Personally, I'd have a hard time not working or doing something, but some people are okay with that.

Peru is a beautiful country and if it weren't for my parents and issues with my father-in-laws death that need to be pursued, I'd so move there.

[athena_ny 1]

Hello,

My husband went thru some trials and tribulations with the job search here. He's from Panama and has been here a year and a half. He took about 9 months and used the "Ingles Sin Barreras" program, got some good grammar books that explained in Spanish the mechanics of pronunciation and grammar, and those things helped him immensely. His English is decent now, but we were running into problems here in Texas for him to find a decent job. Because of all the illegal immigrant stuff, he was being looked at as not good for anything but low paying jobs pretty much because he had still a heavy accent and didnt type 65 words a minute. We decided to move to Miami. There are lots of jobs for bilingual PROFESSIONALS there. You don't even have to speak perfect English, accents are fine..everyone is accustomed to it. After searching for a job there for 3 weeks, my husband landed a great job. I don't think he had 3 interviews in the 4 months he searched hard here in Dallas. I got a job in Ft. Lauderdale, and we are both very exited to be starting a new adventure together.

The only thing that would concern me here is that moving to south Florida is going to make it easier for him to not improve his English, if you get my drift...since many parts of Florida are non-English speaking. I would be concerned that his development in English would come to a standstill and never improve.

Agreed.

We live in an area of Florida where you need to speak English...I do know some people who've been here for 20 or so years who don't speak English, but they either work in ####### jobs or don't work at all. In some areas of South Florida you can go days without having to speak English, and I know that would not have been beneficial to my husband (just us personally) as we'd like to move North when our education is finished. If one plans on living in Hialeah for the rest of their life...well, then it may not matter so much.

[ladypenn 0]

I feel for your fiance. I know how hard it is. I used to work as accountant back home but when I applied for work here, I couldn't get the same job or at least as an accounting clerk. I work now as a cashier in a big store here and I still feel alienated at work too. I know it may take a while, but I'm hoping to be accepted and get the same job here.

[Nancy2015 2]

Speaking good English is a must for landing a decent job. If your husband doesn't want to become a janitor, he needs to speak well.

[girlafraid7 0]

I'm not sure if my husband's story is totally out of the norm, but here goes. He arrived here from Spain this past Sunday. On craigslist.org for our area I always do a job search with the word Spanish...that's it. Well, on Monday, there was a listing for a need for someone with Spanish abilities. Monday night we translated his resume and sent it over. Tuesday he had two phone interviews. Thursday he started work at Yahoo, as in the search engine! This really is the land of opportunity for him!!!

He feels a little overwhelmed because his English isnt' the greatest, but it's a great opportunity!!! He really has been blessed throughout this journey!