Jobs for Salvadorans...In Ohio

We’ve noticed this before, but when you visit the website of one of the daily newspapers in San Salvador, El Diario de Hoy (find it at http://www.elsalvador.com/) you will come across a banner advertisement throughout the pages of the news portal promoting “Ohio Means Jobs.” A click-through on the ad brings you to a jobs listing by the state of Ohio (Ohio.gov) showing what appears to be dozens of positions available throughout the state. We have a query via email going through the government agency to see if we can get to the bottom of this advert, but regardless, several interesting points are raised here. During the most recent election last November, in which Ted Strickland was defeated by John Kasich for the governor’s post in the Buckeye State, a major television ad complained about Ohio jobs going to Salvadorans. Strickland’s demise was surely not tied to this one attack, but it’s interesting that it made the campaign. Meanwhile, Kasich has been busy cutting the Ohio budget, a process that is happening throughout the United States these days as we try to work our way out of the previous decade’s economic woes. But what of the jobs for Salvadorans? If the new Ohio administration was so opposed to hiring Salvadorans in the first place, why are they still inviting them to come up north to apply for work in Cincinnati, Canton, Columbus and Cleveland? We would like to think that the doors in Ohio are open for Salvadorans and other Central Americans, but the reality is that there are many parts of the state that seem hostile to new immigration from that part of the world. And back in March, Kasich unveiled a nearly 800-page document showcasing his program, “The Jobs Budget,” demonstrating how he was going to put more Ohioans to work.

            We are excited that the State of Ohio is looking to El Salvador for workers in these new jobs. We hope that this is not some kind of goofed-up administrative error in which somebody in Ohio has forgotten to pull the plug on this advertising campaign; that would not only be an embarrassment for the new governor, but it would be a slap in the face to our Salvadoran brothers and sisters who saw this promotion and saw a legal way to enter the states and find good employment in the heartland of America.

            We will pass on the reply from the state of Ohio about the advertising, if and when we get a response.

     -- The Crispaz Team