A perennial predicament

HYANNIS -- Steve Hurley says that he hires the same crew of Jamaicans for his Cape Cod inn each year because they work harder, and Americans don't want his low-wage jobs anyway.

"We hired college students, and they'd come in drunk, or they wouldn't show up," said Hurley, 42, who runs the Hyannis Holiday Motel with his 77-year-old father. "Every week it was something. They would find a waitressing job and run off for a few extra cents, or cleaning wasn't their forte, or they would stay, but come Labor Day, they were gone."

Despite relatively high unemployment, Hurley and other firms on the Cape and Islands are backing legislation that would increase the number of unskilled foreign workers allowed in the country.

Bills in Congress, one sponsored by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, would exempt some workers from a cap imposed on the number allowed under a program called the H-2B visa, or raise the cap.

The bills are languishing, victims of anti-immigration fervor spurred by growing concerns over the outsourcing to other countries of information technology, software, telemarketing, and other jobs.

In March, US immigration officials said they would not accept any more H-2B visa applications because the 66,000 cap had been reached.

Critics say the visa program allows companies to hire on the cheap when there are Americans ready and able to do the jobs.

"These jobs have always been done by college kids and the poor. Their labor is not as cheap as the labor companies get from H-2B workers, but it's available," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-immigration group in Washington, D.C. "Companies prefer these guest worker programs because they give employers more leverage over employees."

But Cape Cod employers argue that even during the recession, local workers weren't that eager to take the jobs.

Labor specialists say that with housing prices in these seaside communities skyrocketing, many low-wage workers and their families have migrated to other areas where jobs are more plentiful and wages are higher.

Few want temporary work with no benefits and relatively low pay, said Clark University sociology professor Robert J. S. Ross.

"If people in Hyannis want to pay chambermaids $15 or more per hour, like they do in Las Vegas, they won't have a problem," said Ross. "Why? Because the wage is high enough for workers to maintain a family."

College students used to take such jobs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Now, establishments on the Cape and Islands are open from April to November, requiring workers who can remain on the job longer.

In addition, college students are taking internships that offer professional experience, said Carol Lyons, dean of career services at Northeastern University.

"Low-skilled landscaping and waitressing jobs are not as attractive to college students anymore," Lyons said. "College students want a different kind of experience, something more related to academic studies. They understand that if they have real experience on their rsums, it will help them land that first job after graduation."

Indeed, 82.5 percent of the corporate members of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a nonprofit made up of college career offices and human resource officers, offer internships or cooperative education to college students.

In the 2002-2003 school year, 51 percent of seniors in co-op programs and 38 percent of those who had interned were offered full-time jobs, the group said.

In Hyannis, Hurley relies on foreign help to do cleaning and odd jobs. Seven Jamaican workers, including some who have been coming to the inn since 1997, received visas this year.

Hurley advertised for local workers in Massachusetts' major newspapers, but none responded. The government requires that employers seeking foreign labor advertise for Americans before requesting help from abroad.

"The first year I advertised I had one applicant," said Hurley. "The applicant was from Taunton and on unemployment. The person said, 'You're only seasonal?' Then, the person turned us down."

Chris McNamara, president of McNamara Bros. Inc., a landscaping firm in Harwich, said college students aren't that eager to take his jobs either, and the ones who do turn up aren't reliable.

McNamara's clients are served from April to December, so he supplements his 25-member full-time American staff with foreign temps.

"A lot of kids today see the work as degrading," said McNamara. "But these guys from Jamaica and Brazil have a good work ethic. They've worked on farms. They're not afraid to get their hands dirty. They don't miss work, and they come in daily. They're here to make money."

It is also harder for H-2B workers to quit once they are here. Under the visa program, they must remain with their US employers during their stay.

"They have less options," said Ross. "They are not mobile and cannot jump around. Young Americans are more savvy about their options and will not be loyal."

Poverty is another a factor. The job 32-year-old Jamaican Kevin Daley holds at McNamara's landscaping firm is a financial windfall, enough to support him and his relatives back in Jamaica. McNamara pays $11 to $12 an hour to start.

This is the third year Daley has traveled from Jamaica to Harwich to work for the company.

"It's kind of sad," he said of the H-2B cap. "We just want to work. We're hard-working. We don't make trouble, and we're willing. Back at home it's really hard. There are not jobs there. Coming here makes a difference: It helps people here and others back at home."

Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewis@globe.com.