Pressured by a three-month deadline for refugee self-sufficiency, caseworkers forge relationships with companies like Tyson Foods that are always hiring. They effectively begin "selling a product" by delivering a steady stream of vulnerable workers, prioritizing placement speed over the individual's well-being or career path.
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When ICE raids removed hundreds of undocumented workers from Swift & Co. meatpacking plants, the company faced a crippling labor crisis. Its solution was to aggressively recruit a new, legally authorized, but equally vulnerable workforce: refugees fleeing war and persecution.
A former job developer reveals that meatpacking recruiters would explicitly request workers of specific nationalities, such as Burmese refugees. This was based on a belief that they were more docile and harder working than others, creating a discriminatory hiring pipeline that treats people as commodities.
AI systems from companies like Meta and OpenAI rely on a vast, unseen workforce of data labelers in developing nations. These communities perform the crucial but low-paid labor that powers modern AI, yet they are often the most marginalized and least likely to benefit from the technology they help build.
The constant demand for labor at Greeley, Colorado's meatpacking plant has driven successive demographic transformations. The town shifted from primarily white, to white and Latino as the plant recruited from Mexico, and finally to a diverse international community as it began hiring refugees from Asia and Africa.
Firms invest heavily in sourcing candidates but fail at onboarding. The crucial first 90 days, when an executive is most vulnerable, are often neglected, treating the hire as a 'done deal' instead of the beginning of a critical integration phase.
The federal mandate for refugees to achieve economic self-sufficiency within three months creates immense pressure. This forces resettlement agencies to place vulnerable individuals into any available role, making high-turnover, hazardous industries like meatpacking a primary and exploitative employment channel.
Employees who view their work as a calling are more willing to accept lower pay and make financial sacrifices. This passion makes them susceptible to exploitation, as organizations can implicitly substitute the promise of meaningful work for fair compensation and sustainable working conditions.
Data from 2004-2023 reveals low unemployment in occupations that heavily utilize H-1B visas, such as tech and engineering. This suggests that foreign workers are filling a talent gap rather than displacing a large number of available American workers, challenging the narrative that immigration is a primary cause of job loss in these sectors.
The long-held belief that frequently changing jobs is a red flag on a resume was promoted by companies to maintain employee loyalty. Modern employers should be more empathetic and understand that people often need to explore different roles and industries to find the right career fit.
Founders often feel guilty delegating tasks they could do themselves. A powerful mental shift is to see delegation not as offloading work, but as providing a desirable, well-paying job to someone in the developing world who is eager for the opportunity.
