Immigrants reconsider futures as casinos shut

2/12/2015 Immigrants reconsider futures as casinos shut pressofAtlanticCity.com: Business

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Immigrants reconsider futures as casinos shutBy ANJALEE KHEMLANI Staff Writer | Posted: Sunday, November 30, 2014 8:24 pm

Seven years ago, Bhupindra Patel gave up acomfortable life and a farm in India to pursue theAmerican dream in Atlantic City. Today, he works asa housekeeper at a casino.

Patel is just one of many immigrant workers whoshaped Atlantic City’s casino industry, but nowstruggle to find work. Nearly 8,000 people lost jobswhen four casinos closed within a year.

“I am a farmer. I used to grow bananas, tobacco andrice,” said Patel, of Galloway Township.

But is he going to return to the fields? No.

“The whole of my family is here,” he said.

When casinos first opened in Atlantic City, they hiredmostly residents of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Butsoon, immigrants became a part of the workforce, saidEllen Mutari, a professor of economics at RichardStockton College.

Entire communities migrated to the area as news spread about the promise of longtime job securityworking in positions that did not require higher education or fluent English.

“Many of these foreignborn workers had already immigrated to the United States in pursuit ofeconomic opportunity (in the 1990s), and moved to Atlantic City from larger urban areas. Theywould hear about job prospects in the casino industry from family members. So the casinos weredefinitely a magnet for diverse groups of workers to settle here,” Mutari said.

The casinos originally were bound by a Casino Control Commission regulation to make an effort toemploy minorities and women. They actively recruited immigrants and offered language training aswell as other services to help the workers assimilate quickly.

The system was done away with in 2003 because of several lawsuits filed against the commissionchallenging the constitutionality of those provisions in the Casino Control Act.

The increasingly diverse population eventually spilled out of Atlantic City into nearby towns. Manyimmigrants put down roots — buying homes, rearing children who attend local schools, becoming a

CASINO DIVERSITY

From left, Hannah Nhan, Phu Huynh andKenny Pham spoke about being laid offfrom the shuttered casinos in Atlantic Cityat Pham's tax service and real estate officewhich sits empty, and is up for rent, onArctic Avenue.



part of their communities — but are now faced with the decision to move in search of a job, or toughit out in a tight job market.

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Patel is one of the luckier ones. Since being laid off when Revel closed Sept. 2, he now works parttime at Tropicana Casino and Resort as a housekeeper.

His neighbor and former Revel coworker, Premila Patel, has not been able to find another job. Aftermoving from one illfated casino to another — Trump Plaza to Revel — she will remain a housewifewhile her husband continues to work at another casino.

Premila Patel, like Bhupindra Patel, is from western India. Her husband was a biology teacher beforethe couple packed their bags for the U.S. seven years ago.

She said that life in the U.S is consumed with concerns about bills and taxes, but in India she did nothave to work and worry about such things.

But Premila Patel said she and her family, including two college kids, have no plans to move.

“People who moved here in the 1990s have put down roots in the community and some will be just asreluctant to leave as people whose families have been here longer,” Mutari said. “But analysts arepredicting outmigration in search of jobs, and it is certainly reasonable to think that recentimmigrants might be disproportionately willing and able to pick up and move.”

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The city’s Vietnamese and Liberian populations are seeing consistent departures. Many localVietnamese are looking for work at other casinos, while Liberians are seeking work in other areas ofthe country, such as the Dakotas and Iowa.

Handsford Dennis fled his native Liberia in 1999 during a civil war. He stayed as a refugee in Ghanafor a few years before arriving in the U.S. in 2003.

Dennis found work as security guard for Bally’s Atlantic City. He eventually worked his way up to aposition as a parttime dealer. Dennis then moved to Revel, where he found fulltime work.

In the months after Revel closed, Dennis, 35, of Atlantic City, said he sent hundreds if not thousandsof job applications to companies all over New Jersey.

He isn’t picky about the job, Dennis said. He just wants one that pays, at the very least, about$30,000 — enough to allow him to survive and continue to send money back home to his family.

Faced with the hard decision to move, Dennis chose the state of Iowa, where he was offered a job.And he isn’t the only one, as many Liberians and other Africans in Atlantic County are leaving forIowa or North Dakota, where job opportunities abound and the cost of living is lower.



Dennis said he would rather move to the Midwest than back to his home in Liberia.

“I ran from war. In 1990, we were running to save our lives,” Dennis said.

“How can we leave the U.S. and go to a place where it is hard to survive?” he asked.

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Kenny Pham and Phu Huynh escaped Vietnam in the 1980s, fleeing with 50 other people at a time onfishing vessels about 30 feet long.

Huynh and his wife, Hannah Nhan, live in Atlantic City with their two children. Both worked avariety of jobs at casinos for the past 14 years, most recently at the nowshuttered Showboat CasinoHotel and Trump Plaza.

Nhan said that their two children, ages 8 and 14, understand that their lives have changed drastically.

“No more McDonald’s Happy Meals, no more vacations, no more toys,” Huynh said. “Now, I juststay at home. It’s too hard to find a job. No idea (what to do).”

And the idea of moving is too much. With children in the school system and a home that is likely notto sell, Nhan and Huynh cannot consider a move out of the state.

The couple said other Vietnamese have already left — most have gone to other places, includingPennsylvania and Maryland, where other casinos are hiring.

Pham is hoping to join those who have left, but is bound by both a home and an office that are likelynot to sell.

In addition to working at Showboat for the past 27 years, Pham opened a real estate and tax servicescompany, Vietlantic, on Arctic Avenue in Atlantic City.

He saw the increase in the Vietnamese population, which in turn helped grow his business as hebecame the goto in the community for newcomers. The business is still open, but his only customersare those who have left and need him to take care of paperwork for their homes, he said.

Would Pham, Huynh or Nhan ever go back to Vietnam? They chuckled and replied, no.

Any opportunity in the U.S. is much better, they say and offers a good life by comparison.

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“The casinos were a pull factor, drawing immigrants to Atlantic City. Some of them activelyrecruited immigrant labor, offering language training and other services to increase the availablelabor supply,” Mutari said. “So there have been waves of people of particular nationalities coming tothe U.S. and coming to Atlantic City.”

Loyda CruzRodriguez, 43, was one of the immigrants who came with the goal of learning English



and eventually branching out from the casino industry into a different field.

Rodriguez lived in the Dominican Republic before coming to the U.S. 21 years ago and landing a jobin housekeeping at Trump Plaza.

With her nephew Peter Venditto, 19, translating, Rodriguez described how time flew by without herever achieving her goal.

She used to be a secretary in the Dominican Republic, and she wanted to do the same thing here. Butshe wanted to learn English first. The casino was the only option, when she first came, because shedidn’t have an income and you didn’t need to know English at the time. And the Atlantic City areaappeared prosperous.

But the prosperity ended Sept. 16, when the Plaza closed its doors.

“I was sad because Trump Plaza was a second home. I had time to connect to a lot of people and wasused to everything there. It was a shock (when they closed),” she said.

She is currently a pastor at the Impact of God Ministries in Pleasantville, and is dedicating free timeto search for another job.

Mutari said that while it is currently unknown what will happen to the immigrant community, andwhat effects a decrease in population will have, she hopes that the area does not drastically changefrom the loss.

“It would be a shame to lose the diversity we have now, because I think it enriches our localcommunity,” she said. “There is a line of research that suggests that the creative innovators whodevelop new industries are drawn to communities that are diverse and tolerant. In addition, there isresearch that suggests that diverse perspectives can spark creativity and innovation. So diversity maybe economically functional — though there are many reasons to value it beyond the economic ones.”

Yet on a small scale, the outmigration has already begun, though some continue to wrestle with thedecision.

Rodriguez regrets putting English aside and is now focused on pursuing her goals again. But for now,she dedicates her time to the church in Pleasantville.

Pham’s office on Arctic Avenue sits empty. He has no employees, and no longer has to share timebetween Showboat and the office.

Dennis left Oct. 15, and drove his 2007 Honda Pilot 1,150 miles from Atlantic City to his new homein West Des Moines, Iowa.

Contact Anjalee Khemlani:

6092727247



[email protected]

@ACPressAnj on Twitter

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Immigrants reconsider futures as casinos shut

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