KCRag Forum

NYC Migrants Are Being Welcomed by Kansas City’s Mayor to Fill Jobs

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Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has a hunch that migrants with work permits could help alleviate the labor shortage that has built up as his city posts some of the region’s fastest economic growth. That could also help ease the burden on cities like New York that have struggled to provide housing and support for an unprecedented influx of new arrivals, many of them asylum seekers from Latin America.

Kansas City’s economy is particularly attractive for blue-collar workers, with an industrial base anchored by plants for Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. and a big food manufacturing industry. Amid the construction boom, more than 70% of contractors in Missouri and Kansas say they can't find enough workers.

“We need a lot more employees,” Lucas said. “If there are people who are willing and ready to work, then I believe that there could be a place for them.”

Lucas said he has been in contact with the mayors of New York and Denver, another hotspot for migrant arrivals, to strategize on how to identify workers who may want to come to Kansas City. He said that the city would likely know after Memorial Day what its capacity for supporting new arrivals could look like.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ygtXQ9qs-M

Do the migrants have work permits?

Did the mayor offer any thoughts on where these people would find affordable housing?

Lucas approaching Funkhauser level of mayorship

This is just Lucas planning for his political future. He's young enough he bolts for Washington or NYC and is just posturing favors for job paybacks down the road. Bunch is probably trying the same thing but I'm not sure he catches anything. Maybe, a transportation middle manager for Buttigeig.

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2024 1:32 pm This is just Lucas planning for his political future. He's young enough he bolts for Washington or NYC and is just posturing favors for job paybacks down the road. Bunch is probably trying the same thing but I'm not sure he catches anything. Maybe, a transportation middle manager for Buttigeig.

Who would hire Bunch? That guy is a complete dipshit. Real talk he's so stupid he tried to join this site and couldn't figure it out.

Metro wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2024 7:42 pm

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2024 1:32 pm This is just Lucas planning for his political future. He's young enough he bolts for Washington or NYC and is just posturing favors for job paybacks down the road. Bunch is probably trying the same thing but I'm not sure he catches anything. Maybe, a transportation middle manager for Buttigeig.

Who would hire Bunch? That guy is a complete dipshit. Real talk he's so stupid he tried to join this site and couldn't figure it out.

That’s not very nice. The sign up process isn’t straightforward.

The mayor said on TV yesterday that the migrants must have work permits. The action was taken because local employers have difficulty finding workers to fill positions. He also mentioned large construction projects that needed laborers.

Local agencies work with migrants and refugees to find jobs and housing. Some migrants are sponsored by family members who already live here. Churches also sponsor migrants and refugees and help with their expenses getting settled. Some organizations own housing for this purpose.

Jewish Vocational Services

https://jvskc.org/about/

Della Lamb

https://jvskc.org/about/

KC For Refugees

https://www.kcforrefugees.org/

Their Story is Our Story

https://tsosrefugees.org/community-programs/kansas-city

The largest population of recent migrants are in Wyandotte County and the Historic Northeast neighborhoods in KCMO south of the river.

FangKC wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 4:36 am The mayor said on TV yesterday that the migrants must have work permits. The action was taken because local employers have difficulty finding workers to fill positions. He also mentioned large construction projects that needed laborers.

Local agencies work with migrants and refugees to find jobs and housing. Some migrants are sponsored by family members who already live here. Churches also sponsor migrants and refugees and help with their expenses getting settled. Some organizations own housing for this purpose.

Jewish Vocational Services

https://jvskc.org/about/

Della Lamb

https://jvskc.org/about/

KC For Refugees

https://www.kcforrefugees.org/

Their Story is Our Story

https://tsosrefugees.org/community-programs/kansas-city

The largest population of recent migrants are in Wyandotte County and the Historic Northeast neighborhoods in KCMO south of the river.

Hopefully if Trump wins he's able to destroy things like this.

Citizens of a country of immigrants now not wanting immigrants is the ultimate irony. Take political talk somewhere else, there are plenty of outlets for it, this doesn't want to be one of them.

FangKC wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 4:36 am The mayor said on TV yesterday that the migrants must have work permits. The action was taken because local employers have difficulty finding workers to fill positions. He also mentioned large construction projects that needed laborers.

He means construction projects that need CHEAP laborers. There are workers out there, with many people still on government assistance, that just need a valid wage to pull them into the workforce.

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 8:18 am Citizens of a country of immigrants now not wanting immigrants is the ultimate irony. Take political talk somewhere else, there are plenty of outlets for it, this doesn't want to be one of them.

Wrong.

What is this guy’s problem

I think we all know the answer to that question....

dukuboy1 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 10:34 am I think we all know the answer to that question....

How's the "most progressive council" in city history working? Record high crime, No development, Rising costs. Adding thousands of migrants does not help that issue whatsoever it's a mayor who wants to be in DC so bad giving his pals a reach around at your expense.

Statistics show that immigrants are less likely to commit a crime than US-born citizens.

The Mythical Tie Between Immigration and Crime

https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/mythica ... -and-crime

Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born Americans, studies find

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/12371031 ... udies-find

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 8:54 am

FangKC wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 4:36 am The mayor said on TV yesterday that the migrants must have work permits. The action was taken because local employers have difficulty finding workers to fill positions. He also mentioned large construction projects that needed laborers.

He means construction projects that need CHEAP laborers. There are workers out there, with many people still on government assistance, who just need a valid wage to pull them into the workforce.

Many people on public assistance are already working. Missouri and Kansas have work requirements for SNAP and TANF benefits unless exempted by some provisions. Many low-income working people get Medicaid benefits. Many emergency public benefits during the pandemic have ended.

The unemployment rate is at historic lows and wages have been outpacing inflation since February of 2023.

https://www.axios.com/2024/02/05/wages- ... -inflation

https://www.statista.com/statistics/135 ... ation-us/

The minimum wage in Missouri is now $12.30 an hour, and many low-skill employers are paying more than that. How many people wanting jobs are still waiting out there? Many economists say the US has been at full employment for some time now. I don't know who these people are sitting on the sidelines awaiting "valid wages."

Cheap laborers help keep construction costs down and thus contribute to keeping housing costs from going higher.

Another big issue facing the US is that huge numbers of Baby Boomers are retiring at once, and Generation Z workers will be following within a decade. Mothers producing the Baby Boomer generation commonly had 3-4 children. Now the average US woman has 1.7 children. In 1800, the average woman had 7 children. The country will require more workers just to care for the Baby Boomers in retirement (doctors, nurses, health aides, nursing home workers) and pay into Social Security and Medicare to support them. We are already seeing huge shortages or teachers, doctors, and nurses.

https://populationeducation.org/resourc ... fographic/

If we want our economy to continue to grow, leaders are going to have to consider expanding the number of legal immigrants.

^ First, the unemployment rate is around 4%. In a metro area like Kansas City that means 80,000 people in our area looking for a job that can’t find one. Second, the unemployment rate methodology is bogus. They’ve changed it to make it lower. Actually, only close to 67% of the available workforce is actually working. Many people are not counted an unemployed because they have literally given up looking for work. Lastly, scarcity in workers drives up wages which is a good thing and has to happen to allow workers to pay for the inflated price of housing. If you add cheap labor to the workforce, this increasing wage pressure falls. Sure, it’s awesome for businesses. They can take advantage of super cheap labor and workers motivated to work hard. More money in that CEOs pocket. Also, what is being left behind in the cultures where these workers left? You just emptied most of some Central America country of their young, able bodied, motivated men. What’s left in that culture? But, America’s bottom line, right?

There are more people outside of the workforce (not working) than available to work, as compared to almost any year in the modern workforce era (since women joined the workforce en masse in the 1970s). The topline unemployment rate does not reflect this, a well-known problem to labor economists.

The US has long relied on importing "cheap" labor in order to grease the economy. But this has created many other outcomes, many negative. One outcome is that native-born, under-educated labor stays on the sidelines in significant numbers. In some places, half of the working-age citizens are not working. Often among women it is a childcare problem that impedes labor participation. As a society, the best outcomes would result from maximal workforce participation among people already present in the US.

The optimal solution is to pay the sidelined people more (generally a good outcome for society, and probably what the market would do without immigration politics). Importation of cheaper labor is a method to bypass this outcome, and IMHO is problematic. Certain (politically noisy) industries do profit from it, especially construction and big agriculture, but it often leads to decades of poverty among the imported and (often) later discarded immigrant laborers.

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 8:12 am ^ First, the unemployment rate is around 4%. In a metro area like Kansas City that means 80,000 people in our area looking for a job that can’t find one. Second, the unemployment rate methodology is bogus. They’ve changed it to make it lower. Actually, only close to 67% of the available workforce is actually working. Many people are not counted an unemployed because they have literally given up looking for work. Lastly, scarcity in workers drives up wages which is a good thing and has to happen to allow workers to pay for the inflated price of housing. If you add cheap labor to the workforce, this increasing wage pressure falls. Sure, it’s awesome for businesses. They can take advantage of super cheap labor and workers motivated to work hard. More money in that CEOs pocket. Also, what is being left behind in the cultures where these workers left? You just emptied most of some Central America country of their young, able bodied, motivated men. What’s left in that culture? But, America’s bottom line, right?

Anecdotally, I worked a retail job as a 3rd part time job and they were struggling bad to keep the building staffed and open. Managers and leads were routinely working 60+ hour weeks because they couldn’t find people to hire. Many of us who did work there also had 2 or 3 jobs. They paid $15-$16/hour and couldn’t really afford to pay much more. How is this sustainable?