Clubs and the new immigrant wave.

A century ago, the work that nobody else wanted to do in America was accomplished by immigrants. They cleaned buildings, watched children, cooked, kept grounds--in short, did anything they could do to keep body and soul together and send money to their families back home.

Not much has changed in a century. Back then, the surnames were Irish, Italian, and German. Today they may be Mexican, Asian, or Eastern European. But the American workforce is definitely experiencing a new wave of immigration, and club managers are squarely in the middle of this changing world.

Andrew Fortin, vice president for legal and governmental affairs for the National Club Association (NCA), has been involved in the legislative fight to reconcile the need for national security and concerns about job security for U.S. citizens with new realities that say that immigrants workers are sorely needed here.

In May, NCA--working with CMAA and other industry and business associations--secured a small victory when Congress passed a temporary program, increasing the number of H2B temporary immigrant work visas. The 66,000 visas that had previously been available for 2005 had all been taken by Jan. 3 of this year.

NCA's Fortin said that to his knowledge there are no statistics on the number of immigrants working in the private club industry, but, "Anecdotally--roughly a quarter of the clubs in NCA's membership make use of immigrant workers. More than half of all the growth in the workforce is from immigration. Using people on temporary visa or resident alien workers as we get into this baby bust thing is going to be an increasing reality."

Fortin also noted that the number of immigrants working at clubs is growing in places where one might not expect it: "The use of these immigrant visas by clubs you would think is in big cities, but there is no real pattern. There are a lot of clubs in places like Iowa using immigrant workers." Not only are there fewer young workers available, Fortin said, but "there are so many (other) options for young people."

In addition to using large numbers of H2B visa employees in groundskeeping, housekeeping, and kitchen areas, a number are also using J1 student visa employees--frequently from Western European countries or South Africa--as interns in the front of the house.

Currently there is a proposal by the White House to create a "guest worker program." The program would allow immigrant workers to remain in this country for a period of three years, after which they would have to return to their native country. But the program is very controversial for a number of reasons. There is the typical rhetoric about taking jobs away from American citizens--already shown to be a straw man argument because the pool of citizens interested in doing the work is simply too small. More germane is the question of what to do about the 12 million illegal immigrants who are already in this country.

"We set up hoops, and as a result people sneak into this country to work," Fortin said. He derided what he said is the myth that illegals are "leeches" on this country's social service system. "The irony is that these people are typically very family-oriented, and very conservative," he said.

So what's a club manager to do? The first rule is to document, document, document--and even then the club may find itself on the wrong side of the looking glass world of immigration law. The most highly-publicized example of an employer getting on the wrong side of the INS was Wal-Mart, which was found to have knowingly employed a cleaning contractor who used illegal immigrant workers.

The key word, Fortin would point out, is knowingly. A common example, Fortin said, is the immigrant worker who comes up as a "no-match"--with a Social Security number and name that the government says don't match. The manager then tells the employee, who usually provides a different Social Security number.

But what about the worker who comes up a no-match year after year? At what point is the club knowingly abetting an illegal immigrant employee? But the club can't, for example, implement a more stringent screening process for Hispanic employees: That's discrimination. The club can and should implement the same documentation procedures for all new hires.

One option is to take advantage of a little-known government program that facilitates document verification. The eight-year-old program allows employers to verify workers' employment eligibility by logging onto a government website and checking their documents against Social Security and immigration databases. Registration for the site can be found at https://www.vis-dhs.com/EmployerRegistration/RequestParticipation.aspx? Access-Method=WEB-BP. Nationally, just 4,385 employers are participating, said Chris Bentley, spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees the program.

Even with the government verification that documents are legitimate, employees can't be 100 percent certain an employee isn't illegal. The New York Times recently reported a growing trend toward some Mexican immigrant workers giving "phoning it in" a whole new spin. In order to protect their ability to return to this country, or to earn extra income while they're home in Mexico, these workers are "renting" their identities--names, Social Security numbers, and documentation--to their compatriots. The deals generate cash in other ways; illegal immigrant workers usually earn so little that they are owed income tax refunds at the end of the year. Typically the illegal immigrant will pay their partner in the scheme by sharing the refund. Social Security sends hundreds of thousands of letters to employers for W-2 earning statements with names or numbers that do not match its records. These letters can provoke the firing of the offending worker.

The issues revolving around immigrant workers aren't going away. It's safe to say that the government will have to develop a workable plan to allow seasonal workers whom clubs need to enter this country. What can your club do in the meanwhile?

As previously stated, availing your club of all opportunities to confirm documentation and doing so on an evenhanded basis that includes all new hires is a start. But it just begins there.

There are a number of "best practices" that clubs and other businesses that employ immigrant workers use to ensure themselves of a consistent supply of reliable seasonal workers:

1. Recognize the special needs of seasonal workers. Large landscaping companies have this one down cold. They offer affordable housing for their workers--realizing that many of them want to conserve their earnings to send home. The landscapers often pay a little bit over the market to those workers--knowing that the word will get out back home and they'll bring their cousins ... and their cousins' cousins. They even arrange transportation to and from the job. On the topic of sending money back home, a Canadian company, Stord Systems (www.stord.com), offers a MasterCard "pay card" that allows immigrant workers to bypass expensive check cashing services and send money home by calling toll-free numbers staffed by bi-lingual operators.

2. Speak--and teach--the language. Increasingly, America is becoming a multi-lingual country. For many club members and club employees, English is a second language. It demonstrates respect--and is just good business practice--for the GM and/or key employees to develop fluency in Spanish or other languages spoken by its immigrant workers. Another practice that's gaining currency in the hotel and restaurant industry is daily or weekly English classes, focusing on words and phrases used in the workplace.

3.) Show R-E-S-P-E-C-T. The Supremes had it right: Respect for who and what we are means a lot to everyone, not just immigrants. Understand and respect the customs and understand the ways in which your immigrant employees present and receive information and they'll respect you--and perform better in return.