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March 25, 2004

Recruiters cater to bilingual applicants

Jeremy Schwab

Eddie Crespo surveyed the line of job seekers snaking toward the doors of the Tremont Boston Hotel’s Empire Ballroom last week, apparently satisfied with the strong turnout for his company’s Latino job fair.

“We were just reacting to what the market and our community needs,” said Crespo, the head of marketing for El Mundo Newspaper, which put on the fair. “Recruiters in Boston realize that having a qualified bilingual work force will positively affect their bottom line.”

Inside the ballroom, companies ranging from Blue Cross Blue Shield to Raytheon to Stop & Shop had set up booths, fielding questions from a slowly circulating horde of resumé-bearing seekers.

Some employers were looking just to fill entry-level positions, while others offered mid-level and upper-level management slots.

“Right now we have a lot of clinicians, registered nurses, team leaders, supervisors, councilors, and even the vice president of research and development position open,” said Rebecca Levin of the Home for Little Wanderers.

Like other employers, the Levin’s company sees bilingualism as a plus, and in some positions an essential skill.

“Bilingual skills we use for a variety of programs, working with children, working in public schools, working in pre-school outreach or home-based family support services,” she said. “We deal with a lot of people who have just emigrated to the country.”

Despite the openings available, some of the hundreds of job seekers said they were having trouble finding work.

One Randolph resident said she has sent her resumé out for over 100 positions since July, but only had a few interviews and no bites.

“I was laid off in July,” she said. “I’m looking for work processing claims for insurance. I came here because maybe here are opportunities for Spanish people. That is why a lot of people came here.”

While most came to look for work for themselves, Francisco Garcia came to look for work for others.

“I’m trying to help low-income families find jobs,” said Garcia, a consultant for the Home for Little Wanderers who came to network with employers and connect them to his clientele. “There is a language barrier, most Latinos are working part-time and many do not have papers.”

According to Garcia, while employers may find Spanish fluency a useful skill, many, particularly in higher-paying fields, see English fluency as essential.

“For housekeeping, there is no language barrier,” said Garcia. “But for jobs like research, there is.”

The “English or bust” mentality certainly was in effect at the fair.

“Here, most recruiters seem to speak English, and not so much Spanish,” noted attendee Michael Koch of Malden. “A lot of these jobs seem to require English, while some just say it is a benefit to speak Spanish.”

Despite the language and economic barriers to overcome, Latinos in the Boston area have spread out to many different fields in recent years.

While new immigrants continue to flow into the Hub from Latin America, more established immigrants and their descendants move on to better paying jobs.

“Maybe 10 years ago, this job fair would have attracted more blue-collar jobs,” said Crespo. “Now, more Latinos graduate from college and get graduate degrees, and are working all across the industries and at every level.”

 

 

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