Less Illegal Immigration, More Jobs?
| AR Articles on Immigration |
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| Fade to Brown (May 2003) |
| Waging War on America (Jun. 1998) |
| Halting the Flow (Aug. 1995) |
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{snip}
Immigration prosecutions reached an all-time high in March, reports the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data research and distribution group at Syracuse University in New York. Using data from the Justice Department, it calculates that prosecutions were up 49 percent from February and 72.7 percent from March of last year. This highly unusual surge is filling up US detention centers and jails.
March prosecutions numbered 9,360. That’s small compared to the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US. {snip}
The hike in prosecutions stems from an expansion of “Operation Streamline” last year by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). {snip}
The most common charge is “reentry of a deported alien.” But there are at least nine other crimes, including entry of an alien at an improper time or place. The result is detention until trial, usually before US Magistrate Courts. A typical sentence is one month, and then “removal.”
That time under detention, DHS hopes, will deter these aliens from trying again and discourage others from even trying. Border crossings have plunged, especially in areas where those caught are put into lockups. Border patrol apprehensions along the Mexican border were down 17 percent to 347,372 between October 2007 and March 2008, compared with the same period a year previous.
In addition to the border measures, immigration officials have stepped up well-publicized raids on meatpacking firms and other companies hiring undocumented workers. States, including Arizona, also have been cracking down on employers of illegal immigrants, a crime often harder to prove in court than illegal border crossing.
{snip}
If current moves to restrain illegal immigration trim that growth by 100,000 to 200,000 immigrants, it should have some effect on the nation’s labor supply, notes University of Chicago economist Jeffrey Grogger. He’s coauthor of a paper calculating that a 10 percent increase in the supply of a particular skill group caused by higher immigration prompted a reduction in the wages of similarly low-skilled black men by 4 percent between 1960 and 2000, lowered their employment rate by a huge 3.5 percentage points, and increased their incarceration rate by almost a full percentage point.
So, presumably, fewer low-skilled immigrants could gradually induce more work for low-skilled native Americans.
{snip}
But a study by Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies in Boston attributes the “unprecedented” levels of legal, illegal, and temporary immigration as a factor underlying the “devastation” in the job scene for America’s teens and young adults over the past seven years. That’s especially the case for males with no schooling beyond high school and youths from low-income families. Summer seasonal jobs as a proportion of all jobs are at the lowest level now in the past 30 years.
(Posted on July 3, 2008)
Comments
Illegal immigration harms those at the bottom of our society far more than it harms those at the top. It greatly helps many at the top by supplying them with an inhaustable supply of cheap labor, while it undercuts the wages of those who live from paycheck to paycheck.That is why so many of our wealthy elite support illegal immigration.It robs from the poor and gives to the rich.
Posted by Peejay in Frisco at 5:55 PM on July 3
I would myself love it, if I didn’t have to do unskilled labour. But maybe I would think otherwise, if there wasn’t ANY jobs for me, untill I got a full degree…
It’s always hard to fathom the “jobs we won’t do”, thing. If asked whether I LIKE to empty containers or deliver mail, I would say no. Maybe I would have tried to just live off my fortune, when I still had one (it’s my own fault).
But now I HAVE to. If and when I can get a better job, I’ll take it at once. Sometimes it feels like people are actually blamed for being “soft”, if they avoid sweaty labour by striving for something better. Does that mean, that not enough whites fail to get an education?! The mind boggles.
In any case, I’ve never heard about a man refusing to do certain kinds of work, because he felt above it. Have you? I’ve heard a lot about people getting rejected for being “too qualified”, though.
Posted by Wichmann at 6:40 PM on July 3
9,360 is a drop in the bucket. Not even noticeable. We have 45 million Americans in poverty ready to go to work. We have to end illegal immigration and repatriate the illegals here back to their homelands. We have to break the hold of illegal alien networks over entire industries. We have to secure our border and end chain migration.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 8:26 PM on July 3
Finally got myself a job. Sorry nothing to contribute to the article. But I am an American teen and I finally have a job. Meat wrapper. Sounds distinguished to me.
Posted by Roman Holiday at 10:42 PM on July 3
I thought I would provide a link to a good article rebutting the modern liberal position that illegal immigrants are good for the economy instead of what they really are which is tragically bad for it and the millions of Americans they displace. Leave a comment after you read it. Here’s the link: http://paleoconservatist.blogspot.com/2008/06/modern-liberal-response-to-illegal.html
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 1:25 AM on July 4
Americans are willing and able to do ANY jobs. There are no “jobs that Americans won’t do”. There ARE a good many jobs that Americans won’t do for $3 an hour or less, however! When a single mother can get more money to feed her 3 kids by sitting home on welfare, than by working any job she is qualified to do, (like motel housekeeper, burger flipper, or other unskilled job) she WILL sit home! It’s simple human nature. Send the illegals home, raise the pay for these jobs to something approaching a living wage and there will be millions of Americans willing to do these jobs, and they will get off welfare, too.
Posted by at 2:29 PM on July 4
It IS true, that I have rejected a job offer, because it paid so little (and cost so much, transport-wise), that I would actually earn much more by just sitting at home, looking for other jobs. Often I think about what THEY WERE THINKING about offering an uncomfortable job, that pays less than not working. Or… something that pays so little, than an average (white opinion on what constitutes the)good life can’t be attained. I’ve heard some people (namely a certain Maddox) claim, that if someone’s willing to do the same job for much less than we would even consider, then it’s us that doesn’t deserve the West, not the immigrants. Even a communist however, would see this as a method to keep the wages down. Of course, immigration would (theoretically) dissappear, if everyone was willing to work for even less than any immigrant… or what?
Posted by Wichmann at 6:29 PM on July 4
I think there are many jobs our people won’t do. Most of all, outdoors. Those are the jobs that cause people to get dirty and sweaty. Our young people, for the most part, won’t do this work and if they do take such a job, they do a lousy job because they’ve been told they’re better that that all their lives.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not standing up for these lousy “immigrants,” because I think the work they do is lousy as well. But they’re more or less trying and they haven’t spent most of their lives indoors and can stand the weather better than our young people.
As far as pay goes, it’s always better to be working than just getting money for doing nothing. No matter how menial the work is that we do, we’re supposed to do the best we can. I hate it when I hear people link bad work to how much a person is being paid. Money should never be a factor in how well a person performs his/her work.
Tom Iron…
Posted by Tom Iron at 9:37 AM on July 5
This is true! They have taken almost all the fastfood jobs in America. Even when American teenagers are hired to work among them, they will often speak Spanish amongst themselves, even when yelling out orders. The change can be felt among customers as well. Since today, it is much more common to get the wrong order than it used to be. Have it your way indeed.
Posted by at 12:02 PM on July 5
“When a single mother can get more money to feed her 3 kids by sitting home on welfare, than by working any job she is qualified to do, (like motel housekeeper, burger flipper, or other unskilled job) she WILL sit home! It’s simple human nature.”
Welfare to unwed mothers should be stopped. All children deserve a father in the home, and unwed or divorced mothers need to remarry or live in a home for unwed mothers until they do. Yes, that’s old-fashioned, but we lived in a better world in the 1950’s.
Posted by Roger at 5:15 PM on July 5
Americans are willing and able to do ANY jobs. There are no “jobs that Americans won’t do”. There ARE a good many jobs that Americans won’t do for $3 an hour or less, however! When a single mother can get more money to feed her 3 kids by sitting home on welfare, than by working any job she is qualified to do, (like motel housekeeper, burger flipper, or other unskilled job) she WILL sit home! It’s simple human nature. Send the illegals home, raise the pay for these jobs to something approaching a living wage and there will be millions of Americans willing to do these jobs, and they will get off welfare, too.
Posted by at 2:29 PM on July 4
You are almost right, but wrong all the same. Not many Americans would work in 100+ weather picking produce for minimum wage or any wage. I did a little of it as a teen in the 1960s and I can tell you that it is hard, backbreaking work. But today, I work like that in my own very large garden since I cannot find work as an older, overeducated white man. It is not often that hot up here in the Northwest and when it is, I only water the garden. Other than that I often joke that I am doing the work for me that I will not do for others.
I wouldn’t care if we had Mexican workers in our fields if it were not for the crime they bring and the actual portal of entry into the American economy. This brings successive waves of new farm workers to replace the ones that have found better jobs as their new bosses opt for the cheaper worker. It is those American people who are to blame. They are the ones who sold us out. You can’t blame a Mexican for wanting to survive.
Posted by Whiteplight at 3:27 AM on July 6
“Illegal immigration harms those at the bottom of our society far more than it harms those at the top. It greatly helps many at the top by supplying them with an inhaustable supply of cheap labor, while it undercuts the wages of those who live from paycheck to paycheck.That is why so many of our wealthy elite support illegal immigration.It robs from the poor and gives to the rich.”
Posted by Peejay in Frisco at 5:55 PM on July 3
Absolutely correct! Give Peejay in Frisco a Medal of Freedom award!
When this becomes bad enough, there will be a revolution. But that might be far off. History shows that people seem willing to take an awful lot of abuse before they actually do something. After witnessing (or hearing) how many Americans still have the money to spend multiple evenings shooting off explosives for hours, I think there is still plenty of wool to be fleeced from the white sheep.
Posted by Whiteplight at 3:36 AM on July 6
“I did a little of it as a teen in the 1960s and I can tell you that it is hard, backbreaking work.”
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Yes it is, I too did it every summer I was in high school in the early 70’s though I was small for a girl my age. But that is the point; I and many of my classmates in central Washington did it. I think that if it was safe again, many teenagers would still do it instead of laying around playing with their electronic toys. Teenagers can hardly get any jobs these days, and if they could get a job picking fruit and the like, there are not many parents who would allow them to be out there with so many people of dubious morals, possibly criminal tendancies and other problems.
Posted by at 4:36 PM on July 6
Americans will do any job if paid well enough. Take garbageman (err, umm I mean garbageperson) for example. Last I heard those folks in my town were paid $18 per hour.
Posted by porknut at 6:16 PM on July 6
“I think there are many jobs our people won’t do. Most of all, outdoors. Those are the jobs that cause people to get dirty and sweaty.”
“I think there are many jobs our people won’t do. Most of all, outdoors. Those are the jobs that cause people to get dirty and sweaty.”
I think Americans will do MOST jobs. Our young men would be willing to do most outdoors work such as construction or road crew work. The only exception where it would be really difficult would be migrant work or something on this level. However, it is not necessary to use illegals. Any shortages can be filled by legal seasonal workers, like in Canada. In Canada, the producer specifies how many workers he needs. Then he must pay for the round trip bus ticket for the mexicans. Potential employees are screened for criminal records or disease. Once hired, they do their work for the season, could be a year and when their work is finished, they must go home. This method would be better for both america and the mexicans as any migrant shortages would be filled and the mexicans would have some recourse if they were working legally and temporarily. Illegals get taken advantage of.
Posted by at 8:22 AM on July 7
>>>I think there are many jobs our people won’t do. Most of all, outdoors. Those are the jobs that cause people to get dirty and sweaty.
Sorry, Tom Iron, but you’re just parroting the popular pro-immigration myth with that one. Pay a fair wage and you will find Americans to do the jobs. INCLUDING picking fruit, veggies. Including picking up the trash — jobs guranted to be dirty and sweaty.
Problem is a lot of the under-skilled, under-educated people who used to do those jobs — found it’s easier to sit on their backsides, collecting welfare checks, fleshing out their income with a bit of street crime here and there.
Just about ALL the “good points” we hear about illegal (or legal)immigration is nothing but a spin-job put out on the order of our Mega-Liar of a President. In the same genre as those “weapons of mass destruction” we were told were hidden in every nook and cranny of Iraq. Or those nuclear weapons factories we’re now told of with respect to Iran. Never mind that country is probably two or three decades from that point.
Posted by Fed Up at 12:55 PM on July 7
This is the biggest shame of all. Those entry level/summer jobs should be for our high school kids and college kids. I know when I was in college, a summer job was a real make or break kind of thing. Now a lot of those jobs are taken by invaders/criminals. What do the college kids do? Just party all summer and watch the student loans pile up even further.
Posted by at 1:20 PM on July 7
“I did a little of it as a teen in the 1960s and I can tell you that it is hard, backbreaking work.”
_______________________________________
Yes it is, I too did it every summer I was in high school in the early 70’s though I was small for a girl my age. But that is the point; I and many of my classmates in central Washington did it. I think that if it was safe again, many teenagers would still do it instead of laying around playing with their electronic toys. Teenagers can hardly get any jobs these days, and if they could get a job picking fruit and the like, there are not many parents who would allow them to be out there with so many people of dubious morals, possibly criminal tendancies and other problems.
Posted by at 4:36 PM on July 6
> It was my post you sampled for that quote, so I feel okay about replying to your post as in conversation. I actually agree with you. The work was hard, but a lot of kids were willing to do it for the $0.25 a 20lb per lug of tomatoes it paid. But we did not do it as a daily thing - more like once a week. Still, there are plenty of kids around as you say. Summer vacation used to exist so that families could work on the farm.
When I arrived in Washington State, I was still practicing. I met a couple - patients who were obviously poorer, hippy types. They told me that in the 1980s they tried to get jobs picking fruit in Central Washington and were told by the Mexican foreman that they were not qualified. Their impression was that it meant that they could not speak Spanish and were white.
You are right, we have plenty of personel here. Recall that program tried in Colorado where they were using lighter security prisoners for farm work. Behind where I live is a juvenile facililty. These boys who got in a little trouble spend their time playing on computers, watching tv and taking breaks outdoors shooting baskets in the compound. You and I know where they ought to be - out on a farm learning how to work!
Posted by Whiteplight at 4:16 PM on July 7
One thought I’ve had is the fact that schools don’t teach what used to be called “shop” anymore. Kids don’t have the training to do the jobs that illegals are taking over. Many are not suited for college, nor even want to go. Why not give these kids training in high school for such positions as plumbers, carpenters,construction work,cooks,groundskeepers,etc. all the jobs illegals are taking. Then, when businesses are forced to advertise for Americans first, they will be ready and able. Wages should be fair and workers can be proud of the jobs they do. These are the people who built this country, not illegal aliens.
Posted by June at 6:04 PM on July 7
Yes, something like that. White and black teenagers are routinely indoctrinated to spurn to lows-skilled work as beneath them. Of course, parents and teachers don’t actually say it that way, but that is the basic message they are getting. “Get an education so that you can have a good career”, etc. etc. That is the advice that I followed, and now I’m a lawyer competing with way too many other lawyers for scarce jobs. I make an okay living, but with student loans and all the years I spent in school, I probably won’t actually finish any better off for it.
I bussed tables when I was a teenager. If I had stayed at that restaurant and worked for a promotion to waitress, I would probably be making the same amount of money I am now when you factor in student loan debt.
The reality is that student aid has made education far too available. Now, everyone has too many degrees and claims they can’t find a “suitable” job. That is part of what has gotten us into this immigration mess.
Posted by sofita at 1:17 PM on July 8
“Sorry, Tom Iron, but you’re just parroting the popular pro-immigration myth with that one. Pay a fair wage and you will find Americans to do the jobs. INCLUDING picking fruit, veggies. Including picking up the trash — jobs guranted to be dirty and sweaty.”
Sorry, Fed Up, you’re not being fair. Accusing someone of parroting just because they disagree with you is tacky. Tom Iron could just as well accuse you of parroting. I have noticed a real lack of interest in most jobs among most people I know. There is a certain narrow set of occupations they consider acceptable and won’t consider anything outside of that. In college, I was basically indoctrinated to believe that any work that doesn’t require a degree is not worth having. (Of course, college professors have to justify their existence somehow don’t they).
Pretending this phenomenon doesn’t exist is not going to help us solve our problems. It may be true that if you pay someone $20 an hour to pick strawberries, then you could find native Americans to do it. But then there wouldn’t be much point would there. I couldn’t afford to pay $15 for a basket of strawberries, could you?
Posted by sofita at 5:27 PM on July 8
I should add that I do not think that overeducation and snootiness are the only things contributing to domestic labor shortages.
We need to abolish welfare so that people will have no choice but to work. Then, most of the strawberries could probably get picked by nonimmigrants, and maybe we could still afford to buy them.
Posted by sofita at 5:29 PM on July 8
OK, sofita, I apologize and retract “parroting.” Even though that is the popular refrain sung by pro-immigration groups, as well as LYING GEORGE W.
We do need to encourage kids to think work is NOT beneath them. But when the average kid looking for a part-time job is faced with a near impossible task… how do you inculcate a work ethic?
Hell, even working mothers who would love to work while the kids are in school — can’t work in traditional venues. The Mexican job thieves having crowded Whites out everywhere.
Read my post today, under Employers Fight Immigration Enforcement. Read the lies in today’s MSN NEWS entitled “What if Illegal Immigrants went home.”
Posted by Fed Up at 8:46 AM on July 9