“The paper says some people they think we’re here to take their job away from them. But no. They’re wrong. We’re not here to take any job from them. We’re here to take the job that they don’t want to do... How much more will it take for them to see and realize how important we are to this country? How long? ...What have I done wrong?”
Immigrant worker
Immigrants Like Me
Tom Juravich
You see us in the morning, we come out of the shadows
Workers who look a lot like me
We work in the back rooms, the kitchens and the laundries
The places you don’t see
We do the work nobody wants to, if they’ve a better place to be
You just want us hidden in the shadows
In the place you made for immigrants like me
We need to make money, to send home to our families
From our journeys, we’ve got debts to pay
So we work where we have to, we do what we need to
To make it, there is no other way
But we know just what you’re doing, there is no mystery
No papers, no rules on how you treat us
In the place you make for immigrants like me
Up there on your high horse, you call me illegal
But I have hurt no one
With all of your venom, you say I should not be here,
But then, how would all this work get done?
We do so much to make this country go, but our work you do not see
You just want us hidden in the shadows
In the place you made for immigrants like me
©2007, BMI