Still, the vast majority of Americans don't compete for work with illegal immigrants.
But he continued to compete for work and pursued his fascination with transforming organic forms into architecture.
Their arrival is causing friction with local communities, some already impoverished, as they compete for work, and is straining services such as schools, electricity and water.
Although backing singers were technically competing for work, Clayton talks of a "sisterhood" of allies who helped each other get jobs.
Few speak good Mandarin, which puts them at a disadvantage competing for work outside their villages, and several of those said they lacked the connections to get faraway jobs.
"Now, at 45, having made a little money, having competed for work, having had my heart broken constantly in this business — all of it has made me question things like faith and innocence.
After all, the pressure to compromise bearing down on an in-house lawyer from his sole client, in practice the chief executive, may be even harder to resist than that facing a private law firm, which can at least compete for work from many clients.
And the actors' union, Equity, warned that the figures should not be greeted as unalloyed good news: their figures suggest the number of weeks actors are in work has fallen since 2009, as they competed for work in productions with smaller casts and shorter runs.
