Businesses say that illegal immigrants fill essential jobs that Americans don't want to do. Myth or reality?
Answer:
I don't know if it is myth or reality. I do say we make it a myth. Here is how, we have 5.7 million people on some form of welfare or government assistance. We have 12 million illegal immigrants. Those 5.7 million people could do half of the illegals do. Also remember not all 12 million work. That will solve 2 problems it will get rid of our illegals and lower the welfare roles. While the wages these people would make filling the jobs may not get them completly off of govt assisantce it will get some off, and lower the need for others. If these people on welfare choose not to do these jobs they lose their welfare. Now while there are 5.7 million people on welfare there are also many unemployed that don't get assistance for one reason or another, we get them to do these jobs, and problem solved. Will get get all slackers off welfare and all illegals out of this country? No, but it is a start and will help, and show those filthy criminals once and for all we really don't want them or need them, and they can get jobs in some other country.
Reality
Myth.
The illegal workers work for lower wages, but the costs are passed on to the government:
-social security
-housing
-welfare
65% of california inmates are illegal aliens.
Myth - if the illegal immigrants weren't here to do 'essential' jobs, the wage would have to be higher - so some Americans would do the job. Basically, illegals fill essential jobs employers don't want to pay more to have done.
The problem is an issue of economics. Illegal immigration allows certain products to be cheaper BUT they also drive down wages. Second, the addition of illegal immigration costs us in our education system and in our medical system. If you do real research, you Will find the illegal immigration COSTS us, not benefits us.
Myth. Mexicans have taken over the service market because they were the "in" thing. Believe me, I've done this work and there's a such thing as an "in" thing in hiring help. Now we've got middle aged white people who can't get jobs because once immigrants get into a place they take over it and only hire their own. Plus there's an attitude that if you're say a white american you're suppose to be a certain way, have a certain type of job, have a certain amount of money etc. And if you don't they make negative assumptions about you...drunk, ex con, stupid or whatever. So they hire this stereotypical cheap hardworking mexican rather than a white american who they presume to be a loser since they're in service. I don't know how much it affects other americans, but I know white people are denied service jobs which are saved for and given to mexicans. So I know first hand this is a myth. There's some sort of agenda going on to benefit rich and powerful and the politicians and screw over the average working american.
It's reality. Although Americans are happy to do the jobs, they require more money because of taxes and being accustomed to a higher std of living. The diff between what illegals get paid and what Americans would get paid is pocketed by the corporations...while any attendant costs get passed on to the local and state govts (for healthcare, police, etc).
I don't think we really know at this point. Once upon a time, transients and homeless people would fill these low-paying positions. The often seasonal work filled their needs well, the the temporary people knew just when to hit up the orchards and fields and such. Of course, as illegal populations increased, this was no longer the case.
There's no saying for certain that things would go back to the way they used to be before large illegal populations.
Edit: As mentioned, this is an economic issue. We can't simply raise the wages of the positions illegals typically fill...Those markets would no longer be able to compete with foreign markets that employ ultra-cheap labor (see S. America for produce and Asia for manufactured goods). With our almost free trade policies and our minimum wage laws, we NEED a cheap labor force to maintain certain markets. The question is, do we have enough desperate or disparaged Americans (like the transients mentioned above) to make up the void when illegals are deported, because raising the wages in these markets is simply not an option.
Myth. Simply look back in history. Prior to the flood of illegal immigrants entering the country legal American citizens held these jobs albeit at a higher wage. Somehow just someway the American public were in a financial position to afford these same products as services. Myth.
When's the last time you saw the "Majority" performing custodial duties, harvesting produce by hand or doing city maintenance jobs (ie: city landscaping/roadwork) & not on the machinery but the manual labor? All in all I would go with reality.
Well, I think it a myth. Sure there are persons willing to do those jobs, just not for the pittance that can be paid to illegals to do them. The truth is that wages are kept artificially low by the employment of illegals. I suppose prices might increase, but I guess prices increased when we outlawed slavery.
IT IS A FRAUD!theyll say anything to get profits and bonuses increased.
Illegal immigrants fill in unskilled jobs. They take jobs that any idiot can learn in an 8 hour shift. They then take jobs they don't need to speak too much english for. They then learn English. They then work two decent jobs to support their 50 kids here and back home. Then their wives sell tamales for untaxed revenue. Then they get someone to sell them a house, car, etc. Then their kids flood the public school system like Hurricane katrina, make good grades in school, flood colleges, and end up taking your jobs. Don't forget when your kids try to get a summer job, at the Dairy Queen, Mexicans have been working their full time along with their other job. Now you have to come out of pocket because your kids can't find a job this summer. And it isn't saving you money on products, its saving the rich on labor. Gas prices are gonna inflate retail prices anyway. Don't be a sucker.Don't forget the healthcare system. The Harbor UCLA urgent care is full of latinos, and they aren't paying. We also need them to get legal so they can support are population. Who is going to fight the wars we start over natural, topographical, etc resources. Its for the greater good of the rich in this country.
It is not a myth it is a huge LIE!
Nothing but a lie Americans built this country.
Americans mowed their own lawns, cooked, cleaned, washed etc LONG BEFORE the illegal immigrant invasion.
It is another one of their myths. Might be raised a bit, not nothing drastic. American citizens will do those jobs. They did them before the illegals were here and will do them once again.
Well, it's true.else why this would happen???
Prisoners to Work Colorado Fields
Attempt to Supply Workers Is Criticized by All Sides of Immigration Debate
By Sonya Geis
The Washington Post
On the Web: The Washington Post
Ever since Colorado passed tough immigration laws last year, farmers have worried that the immigrant laborers they depend on to plant and harvest their crops will not show up in the fields this season. So, a state legislator has proposed a novel idea: Send in the prisoners.
In a pilot program officials hope to roll out before the May planting season, minimum-security prison inmates will work five farms in southeastern Colorado to fill in for migrant workers. The inmates will earn the state's standard prison pay of 60 cents per day.
Critics from every side of the immigration debate have called Colorado's plan a deeply flawed stopgap solution to the chronic labor shortage, which afflicts agriculture from New York's apple orchards to Oregon's Christmas tree farms.
"One generation ago here in Oregon, the crops were picked by high school kids," said Gordon Lafer, associate professor of political science and labor studies at the University of Oregon. Now, he said, the inmate program tells workers, "for all those industries that couldn't move to Mexico or China, we're going to bring those conditions to you."
"The basic problem is that the pay is so low that it's difficult for people to accept those jobs," said Charles Tafoya, executive director of Rocky Mountain Service, Employment, Redevelopment, a job training agency in Denver. "If farm work paid a livable wage like any other industry, they wouldn't have that problem."
Those who want to restrict immigration tend to agree that farm wages are too low.
"Like illegal immigration, using inmate labor is simply forestalling or preventing the ultimate solution to this problem, which is, a) to let wages and benefits rise, and, b) at the same time, to mechanize," said Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports more restrictions on immigration.
"If the goal of illegal immigration is to allow a tiny number of undercapitalized farms to continue to eke out a living for another few years, then boy, that's a strange national policy," he added.
The inmate program has precedents. In Arizona, about 60 prisoners worked in watermelon fields last year, filling in for migrant workers. Iowa legislators have expressed interest in copying Colorado's program.
Colorado's plan calls for supervised teams to plant, weed and harvest on farms in Pueblo County. Farmers will contract with the state for the labor, paying the cost of transportation and guards.
State Rep. Dorothy Butcher (D-Pueblo) is the architect of the prisoner program. She also voted for Colorado's new immigration laws, which require residents to prove they are in the country legally to receive benefits such as in-state tuition or business licenses. "A lot of [immigrants] have felt threatened, and aren't coming," Butcher said. "We can't let the agriculture business just dry up."
About 78 percent of the nation's 1.8 million agricultural workers are immigrants, according to Department of Labor statistics. The majority are in the country illegally.
"Thousands of immigrants and their families have left Colorado in the past year," Julien Ross, coordinator of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said. Some of those are legal immigrants who do not understand the law and fear they could be deported for just a speeding ticket or other minor offense, Tafoya said.
Phil Prutch, one of the Colorado farmers negotiating with the state to use convict labor on his 250 acres of sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes and melons, said he pays workers all he can afford -- $6.85 an hour, or Colorado's minimum wage. He said he needs workers to fill 10 to 20 jobs this season, and does not expect immigrants to fill them all.
But even he is lukewarm to the idea of replacing immigrant labor with convicts.
"It's not a fix," Prutch said. "The people we hire -- most people don't think much of them, but they're skilled labor. A person who doesn't know what they're doing can ruin you in a day."
Ari Zavarasl, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, said inmates are already used to tame wild horses, build furniture and work in a dairy, and should be able to adapt to farm work.
"They will be learning some work skills," Zavaras said. "One could raise the question of, 'How marketable is working in the fields?' But you'd be surprised how many inmates we have who've never held a job. And if we can teach them they have to be up, ready to go for a day's work, that's a step in the right direction."
Immigrant advocates and farmers say agriculture jobs would be filled if Congress passed a guest-worker program, such as the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act. AgJobs, as the bill is known, would allow undocumented farmworkers already in the U.S. to become legal permanent residents.
"The federal government needs to get off their heinies and get something done," Prutch said.
myth. This is just some bullS#@* they came up with to make themselves look better and to make the situation look like they are not really doing anything wrong.
Myth, businesses pay illegals a sub-standard wage (in most cases) that allows them to make a greater profit.
Eliminate illegals and wages will go back up
and if Americans are complaining that "illegals" are taking American jobs away, why don't they go find those jobs and take them since you can. if you think these people are illegal why don't you report them or the employer if they don't hire you?
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