Country Faces Acute Labor Shortage
by Rod Hughes
Two years ago, Costa Ricans were complaining bitterly about illegal immigration, fearing that Nicaraguans would take work away from Ticos who demand and get at least the legal minimum wage. This led to immigration legislation so severe that President Oscar Arias refused to enforce much of it, saying that it violated foreigners’ rights. Meanwhile, illegal immigrants continue to pour across the border.
Now, the agricultural sector and construction complain that they face a shortage of labor, bordering on a crisis. In agriculture alone, the shortfall is estimated at 70 to 80,000 jobs vacamt for lack of willing hands. The image of rotten coffee berries falling off the trees and ruined pineapples spoiling in the fields give nightmares to economists and farmers alike.
Granted, during past coffee harvests, seasonal agricultural workers have been in desperate demand, but this is the first time in the nation’s history that more labor demand than supply has existed on a permanent basis: 5,000 to cut sugar cane, 5,000 in the Caribbean banana plantations, 4,000 in the pineapple fields. And this is not counting the 50,000 seasonal coffee pickers that will be needed in the harvest at the end of the year.
Nowhere has the labor shortage been felt more than in the country’s fast-growing construction industry, where wages for unskilled jobs have been forced up to attract workers. But this has merely deepened the agriculture crisis as workers abandon the fields for manual labor in concrete. “How are you going to keep them down on the farm?” went the old song and that is what farm owners are singing now.
In part, Costa Rica’s success in attracting foreign investment is at fault. International corporations like Intel have skimmed much of the cream off the top of most of the educated market that might otherwise be under employed, forcing the non-high school graduates into unskilled labor. Many young high school graduates have filled jobs in the now-sagging sportbook industry but many have found call center jobs with other companies or are working in tourism.
On a social level, the shortage may cause the average Costa Rican to re-think his prejudices. It was not long ago that Nicaraguans, nicknamed “Nicas” were blamed for the rising crime rates (with no statistical basis for the assumption) and for lowering salaries by being willing to work for slave wages. Two Nicaraguan governments have complained about anti-Nica discrimination. (Although Nicaraguan presidents tend to point the finger at any foeign country that distract the public away from a focus on their own mismanagement of their country. No doubt, their troubled economy makes the money illegal immigrants send home a powerful motive to want immigration to Costa Rica more attractive.)
If this sounds familiar, like the southern border of the United States, it is because many of the same factors are at work. Currently, critics of the immigration muddle in the United States are beginning to urge that illegal immigtration be made harder while legal entry for Mexicans be made easier. That is precisely what the immigration reform bill currently before Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly is aimed at accomplishing.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica has no plans to build a fence anywhere on its borders.