Written by Maree Forbes Gaughan, PhD, Chief Strategist & CEO
Good day, all. When we held the National Conversation in mid-December, we went into a wait-and-see mode until the new administration took office. Before that, all was speculation, except for the violence we all witnessed in three of America’s largest cities first pop out of the box into the New Year.
Unfortunately, the waiting to see what else will happen for tourism is over. We wish we could bring better news. Within the three days following the inauguration ceremonies, immigration raids have occurred in 8 states, and American soldiers are being sent to the southern border of the United States.
Few understand that most undocumented individuals in this country do not arrive via the southern border. They arrive on planes with tourist or student visas and never return home. And they come from all over the world. It is only those seeking asylum from the horrendous conditions in their own countries that get all the attention.
photo by On Site Top 10 via flickr.com
No, birthright citizenship cannot be canceled with an executive order. It is enshrined in the Constitution, which requires two-thirds of both houses of Congress to pass and three-fourths of the US states to ratify before it can be changed.
Perhaps most critical for tourism is the fact that the hospitality industry is still 1 million employees down from COVID-19, and 15.5% of those who do work in hotels and other accommodations are non-citizens. That figure includes 35% of hotel housekeepers who clean the rooms daily. 25% of those who do the laundry, prepare the food, and do the maintenance are also non-citizens. Hotels and accommodations will soon be impacted.
Another 13% of restaurant staff are also non-citizens. Automation isn’t going to replace all of these people unless we can quickly train a squad of robots to do these jobs and help the locations pay for the ability to buy this technology.
Yet, even given those facts, the staff affected is less than landscaping services, where nearly 30% are non-citizens, and building construction, where it is almost 20%. Removing those workers is going to curtail the new housing construction market exponentially.
Despite all of this turmoil, we continue to believe that some of it is bluff and bluster to take the focus of whatever the real priorities of the new administration are. Those insights are still to come. Stay tuned.
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