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I often hear members of the right wing claim that illegal immigrants take jobs away from hard working Americans and put a strain on our economy. On the surface this seems like a sound argument. After all, they are getting paid, not paying taxes, and are more likely to be socio-economically disadvantaged with all the baggage that comes with that. Any reasonable person, regardless of party affiliation, will agree that this is a serious problem and that people should not enter this country illegally and once caught should be deported.
However, the notion that these illegals are preventing Americans from getting employed is incorrect. The jobs these impoverished people have are hard, low paying, without benefits, and generally unappealing to any person who might have other options. I worked as a foreman for a moving company for 4 summers in college. Don’t ask why. The job starts every morning at 7 AM and sometimes goes past midnight. There are no days off and the starting pay is 9 per hour plus tips. So a typical week could have 60-90 hours of back breaking labor with the requisite carrying of couches up spiraling staircases or under the unforgiving rays of the summer sun. One could easily make 1000 bucks a week doing this job. Sounds like a job for “hard working American”? In reality, Americans are few and far between. At my particular company, it was mostly Guatemalan, El Salvadorian, and Mexican. I was the only one with legal status. Over the years, I have seen many Americans try this job on for size, but they typically didn’t last past the first day. More reputable companies, such as Gentle Giant, employ mostly Lithuanians, Romanians, and Polack kids who come to the States for summer jobs.
So if for some reason all illegal immigrants stopped showing up for work, the employer would not be able to fill their positions. Obviously ever person has a price, and there are companies such as Casey and Hayes that are unionized and get time and a half for work after 5 PM and past 40 hours (I’m jealous). However, most companies would not be able to sustain those higher salary requirements and would close. This is just not an American job market. The same goes to the other unappealing jobs. I read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly book recently and he said that Americans just can’t hack it in a restaurant kitchen and that he would hire an Ecuadoran over an American any day. You also can’t find 50 Americans to stand outside of Home Depot at the crack of every dawn in the hope of getting some roofing work.
You, the reader, might disqualify my and Mr. Bourdain’s experiences as anecdotes and a quick internet search might lead you to this detailed counter argument. While I agree with the premise, that there is nothing inherently anti-American in these manual labor jobs, I disagree with the conclusion. It is not the illegal worker that depresses the salary and thus making the jobs unappealing to Americans, but rather the employers that lowers pay by threatening workers with their illegal status. This argument was much more eloquently summarized in this New York Times Editorial. Its not that illegal immigrants took your jobs, it’s that employers are not giving them to you. So lay off the poor workers and go after the companies that employ them.
It's interesting how you twist the responsibility around. Or perhaps a more fair term is 'spin'.
You say "It is not the illegal worker that depresses the salary and thus making the jobs unappealing to Americans, but rather the employers that lowers pay by threatening workers with their illegal status."
This makes it sound like the sneering employer is actually threatening the employee with being deported. It's as if he's saying "Ya don't like the pay? Then I'll sic Immigration on you, ya lousy foreigner!"
More likely, the employer is just trying to maximize his profit in the way that any other employer would do . He's paying less for the illegal, because that's what the market will bear.
If I owned a business I'm not going to pay workers a cent more than I have to if it doesn't affect my business. If I can get good workers, really cheaply, I'm not going to, out of the 'goodness of my heart' suddenly give them more money simply because I'm a nice guy. I'll pay them a fair wage, based on the work they do and what it would cost me to get someone similar from the work pool.
That's the way capitalism works.
Interesting article, but I have to say, "Polack"? I haven't heard that since Archie Bunker. I'm surprised to see it here.
Scott M: I agree with you completely, this is why the public debate and general hatred should be on the employers who are breaking the law and hiring these people. This is exactly what the NY Times op-ed argues.
Regina and all Poles: Sorry, thats my foreignness coming out. I just translated the word from my native language. Didn't mean no disrespect
Growing up in Florida and working in numerous kitchens during school, I can attest to Sam's experience regarding illegal workers in certain fields. Most of the back-end kitchen staff (prep cooks, dishwashers, etc) were from Mexico and Central America, and all worked harder than anyone else we ever had in there.
One aspect, though, that is a gray area. The "market" will allow paying an illegal immigrant a lower wage, mainly due to the living conditions (numerous men sharing a small space), the fact that they may not have a point of reference in terms of competitive wages, and that due to their illegal status, they don't have any recourse.
Sam, you ignorant slot. Opps - my foreigness...
When unemployments is as high as it is, there are no jobs beneath people who are here legally.
Perhaps before you write your next article, you might want to do some research. Just a thought
@Anonymous - tell that to a Wall Street investment banker complaining about how he can no longer afford private schools, or the writer for the NY Times that explained how $500,000 annual salary wasn't enough to live in Manhattan. The fact remains that there are many, many people out there unemployed who feel as though certain jobs are beneath them, esp. those that are manual labor.
And, pray tell, how can one research an opinion like "there are no jobs beneath people"? Frankly, these jobs aren't beneath people at ANY rate of unemployment. And, for the record, no where does he say that the job is beneath anyone.
I'm not sure it makes a difference, the end result is still the same — the corporation is not giving you the job the immigrant is not taking it away. There really is no "twisting" here.
The disingenuous of politicians is fairly silly, even before the elections, and the hullabaloo about immigration, there were policies in place which could have decreased the problem significantly if they had been initiated. They weren't. To make new policy makes no sense when one doesn't even follow old policy, policy that would have worked if actually followed.
Maybe people are now screaming for jobs, but a friend of mine runs a restaurant and bar in a Mid-Atlantic resort town, most of the employees of the restaurants and bars there are still either Russian immigrants or Hispanic, because even now no one wants to do that work — the kitchen, the short order, and so on, so at least in some parts of this country there are still jobs people feel are beneath them.
Sorry but illegal is still ILLEGAL! I have nothing against LEGAL immigrants, being the son and grandson of LEGAL immigrants! Otherwise it is like you are saying that being a drug dealer is OK becuase they make and spend money while they are living and dealing here in the US. All the while they are doing something illegal! Last time I looked up illegal in the dictionary it meant something about not being legal - or in other words breaking the law! My question to you is that are you encouraging people to break the law?!?
Now, CK, comparing immigrants who work manual labor for low wages and drug dealers is a bit of a stretch. Where is the leap in logic there?
Okay, so it's ILLEGAL, so you're saying that someone who tints their front windows in California is the same as a serial rapist? They're both ILLEGAL, so they are in the same category.
Like it or not, there are degrees here.
@Olivia : Sure, some people think certain jobs are beneath them.... for the wages that are being offered. If the wages were much higher, then Americans (who used to a higher standard of living than recent immigrants) would gladly accept those jobs.
Of course, this starts a domino effect. Then employers have to pass these costs on to consumers. And consumers will stop buying. And then some of these businesses will have to close.
There is plenty of blame to go around. There is the government for creating such a unwieldy immigration system that it takes years for an immigrant to become a citizen, and makes it extremely difficult to work here legally in the meantime. There is the public, who doesn't put much pressure on their representatives to fix it during good times and then screams bloody murder during bad times and wants an immediate solution. There are businesses that break the law but are just trying to survive. And there are the immigrants themselves, that are just looking for a better life, but, admittedly, are breaking the law.
Is there a solution? Of course there is, but it requires effort and sacrifice which few of us, who live relatively comfortable lives in America, are willing to accept.
We streamline the immigration policies FIRST, making it easier (and cheaper) to obtain work visas and become citizens.
We offer some sort of pathway for illegal's to become citizens. They have to prove they've been here for some amount of time, to stop a rush across the border before the law passes. And they have to pay a penalty (monetary, public services, something)
And finally, we have to accept that increased legal immigration is going to cause some problems. Wages will still be lower, because even legal immigrants will have a lower standard of living. But the wages won't be as low as before, so some prices (produce, etc) are going to rise. And those industries whose business model was built on cheap labor might not survive. And then there is the whole cultural issue, since legal immigrants will be more vocal and demand more representation and have more buying power, something that is bound to make some people uncomfortable.
But anything is better than the status quo.
CK,
I agree with you that illegal is illegal. At no point in my post does it say otherwise. The whole discussion was about the supply and demand of a particular job market.
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