There is a pattern to these stories that even Aljazeera understands. The formula goes something like this: struggling immigrants arrive in an American town, townspeople are mean and unwelcoming (examples are given), but hardworking immigrants overcome and are ultimately accepted with everyone living happily ever after in multicultural nirvana. So, the point is, you don’t have to read most of this article about Ft. Morgan, Colorado.
But, I did find one section of the overlong piece interesting. It’s the discussion about the Cargill meat packing plant.
We learn that 2/3 of its 2,100 employees are Hispanic and 1/3 are East African (Somali mostly) and a Cargill representative leads us to believe that they are not choosing immigrants over American workers. Huh? The trick is trying to figure out how exactly do the immigrant laborers improve their bottom-line. Is it through cheap wages? Tax breaks? A combination of the two. You know it isn’t because Cargill owners and managers are simply good people out to help the downtrodden of the world!
I found this (below) quite informative. And, what do you know—here are the Lutherans again!
Aljazeera “It takes a village!” (emphasis mine):
Mohamed [one of the stars of the Aljazeera piece—ed] works out of a new Lutheran Family Services office in Fort Morgan. The organization has long experience helping settle newly arrived refugees. The task is slightly different in Fort Morgan, where many of the refugees have lived elsewhere in the United States for years and no longer qualify for the housing and other support offered to new arrivals. Here, Lutheran services include classes to help the refugees apply for citizenship.
The African refugees’ arrival started with just a few, in 2005, according to Mary Ginther, head of human resources at the plant that Cargill has run here since 1987. Word of jobs at the plant may first have reached the large refugee community in Minnesota, where the giant agribusiness conglomerate has its global headquarters. Ginther says Cargill officials at one point were meeting the regular bus from Minneapolis, which arrives in Fort Morgan on Sundays, to hand out welcome kits to new employees. Managers who wanted to improve communications with the new workers also sat down with Somali elders, learning about their culture. That resulted in a workshop that Cargill, at the request of police chief Kuretich, has offered to police officers as well as to company supervisors.
Once new workers are settled, Cargill wants to keep them. From the early days when many of their workers were from Latin America, Cargill had learned that one way to retain staff is to help newcomers settle into town and offer them a chance to learn and be promoted. For two decades, Cargill has worked with Morgan Community College to offer its employees classes in English and job and other skills. Once, students who spoke Spanish as a first language were the main target. Now, students who attend classes on their own time speak more than a dozen languages.
The plant employs more than 2,100 people. Employees come from more than 16 countries, with about two-thirds from Latin America and almost a third from East Africa.
Ginther says some in Fort Morgan cling to the myth that the plant gets federal money for employing refugees, or accuse Cargill of giving foreigners special treatment.
They obviously benefit from employing immigrants—how?
We have written often about “welcoming” Ft. Morgan and its refugee overload, here is our archive (you won’t hear about the down-side from Aljazeera America). Remember too, Senator Jeff Sessions called out the meat packer lobbyists on the amnesty bill.