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Comment by rnk | Hacker News Reader

Hard for immigrants to get those jobs. They might not in the locations where those jobs are, or can't pass a background check, or might have been arrested for dui 10 years ago, or maybe once wrote a hot check (which must happen way more for poor people). A lot of uber drivers are immigrants without much access to the working world, nothing like I have as a us citizen with a college degree and history of working as a dev. If I just immigrated from Ghana, and I also was maybe driving some times on my buddies car and id because I wasn't allowed to for some reason. This is the underclass world a lot of people are living in.

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>Hard for immigrants to get those jobs. They might not in the locations where those jobs are, or can't pass a background check, or might have been arrested for dui 10 years ago, or maybe once wrote a hot check (which must happen way more for poor people).

Are you sure you're not talking about gig workers as well? For instance, uber says[1] that they need a valid drivers license and conducts background checks (which apparent check for previous driving infractions as well as criminal history).

[1] https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/requirements/

You meant *illegal immigrants right?

Your wording sounds like you're posting this as a "gotcha". Would you like to elaborate further?

And as a response to your perceived "gotcha", no, they do not need to be illegal. Even a refugee with a medical degree in their home can arrive here and can fall through the cracks in our system just because they aren't able to master a second language fast enough. Not every immigrant is illegal, no matter the pearl clutching.

Gotcha? No.

I'm referring to people whom are given the same legal benefits of being able to work besides me when they haven't gone through the proper channels of legalities nor sought to do so. I remember my parents immigrating to the US and not have to cross a river at night with just the clothes on their back or pay off a "coyote" to do so.

I doubt it. Do you really think Uber could get away with employing undocumented people as drivers without getting found out?

In California it might but I was thinking more in generalities of all the other startups we have had when Uber came to be.

For example, GigWalk.

Uber doesn't 'employ' their drivers. They are contractors. AFAIK an illegal can get a TIN, which combined with their home country's identity documents would be sufficient to legally complete the paperwork to pay out the contract [note this is not legal advice.]

You'll notice this pattern lots of places. Look around in employment ads for construction gigs in lots of cities and they'll be looking for 'contract' teams which we all know likely means some illegals who setup a genuine LLC or get a TIN or whatever; there's no requirement to verify legal employment when paying out a contract AFAIK.

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