Immigrants Expected to do the Heavy Lifting in Post-Sandy Reconstruction

The World
In New York and New Jersey, piecing back together the communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy will be a daunting task. And who will do the hard work? History suggests immigrants are likely to play a major role. Immigrant labor made a major contribution to rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And estimates suggest that one out of five construction workers in the US today is an undocumented immigrant. Patrick Vinck is a researcher at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. He's the author of a study that examined the role of immigrant labor in post-Katrina reconstruction. Vinck says it's likely a similar story will play out post-Sandy.
Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.