OC Register uses CAR to trace ‘addiction’ to immigrant labor in Calif.
Ronald Campbell of the Orange County Register launched a four-part series on immigrant labor with a piece outlining California’s “addiction” to these workers. He writes:
“Today, most of the state’s housekeepers, painters and cooks are immigrants. So are half of its software developers, a third of its registered nurses and a quarter of its business executives. A generation ago, natives of the United States dominated all of these jobs, indeed almost every occupation.
Most of the workers in Santa Ana and central Los Angeles, places filled with tiny businesses and garment factories, are immigrants. But immigrants make up nearly half the workers in much of Silicon Valley, including the hometowns of Apple and Google.”
The story includes links to source material to let you see where the paper got the information. In all, the series involved interviews with dozens of immigrants, analysis of four decades of Census records and the review of more than 100 reports, the article says.
Today’s Tip: Don’t omit the “history” in the quote: “Journalism is history in a hurry,” Ronald says.
Ronald Campbell
“One of things we need to remember is sometimes better stories comes from pulling back and looking more deeply at what has changed over time,” he says. “With broader economic issues, we get overwhelmed about what just happened and not what just happened over the course of time.”
Ronald, whose background is in business, investigative and computer-assisted reporting (CAR), likens that to looking at stock prices: changes to the stock price over the past year provide more information than the past day.
With the immigrant-labor story, Ronald says he was interested in the economic impact of immigration. “I started with the basic premise that probably most [people] come here to work. Are they replacing natives? Or filling jobs natives don’t do?” he says. “With patience, we can find answers.”
If you’d like to sharpen your data-analysis skills, check out two upcoming workshops that the Reynolds Center is co-presenting with Investigative Reporters and Editors: “Be a Better Business Watchdog — CAR for Business Journalists” in Atlanta Oct. 11 and in Milwaukee Nov. 9.
