Venezuela migrants will work very hard

THE EDITOR: Venezuelans in line to be registered to stay in TT for a year were being offered jobs by local companies. These migrants will work very hard, be pleasant at their jobs, because they have to support themselves and families back in Venezuela.

Trinis are saying, “The crime rate is going to go up” and “They are going to take away our husbands/wives.” Well, the marriage must have been on the rocks long before.

Some Trinis are also saying “They are going to take our jobs?” If all along you just wanting a specific job near home, why didn’t you take any job till the right opportunity came along?

No, Trinis work only when they need money to attend a fete, or pay off outstanding bills, and when that is done, they start missing work, or leave the job altogether.

The pattern is repeated over and over, as one mattress factory CEO mentioned, “We cannot get workers to come to work regularly.”

For decades the unions, politicians, and “wayward people” in charge of children have encouraged young people, especially from one particular race, not to work if they do not want to.

Crime was escalating out of control long before the migrants started to cross from Venezuela into TT.

These migrants are welcome here, my home, just like my grandparents were allowed to come here to work in the 1880s. They will teach us a lot and I hope their stay will be happy.

PATRICIA BLADES via e-mail