Immigration
(photo found here)
Every so often, in the argument about illegal immigrants in America, and more specifically here in California, we hear that we need these workers to come to America, legally or illegally, because Americans aren’t willing to take these jobs. The jobs that immigrants take in America, mostly agricultural, are jobs that Americans aren’t willing to take.
Well, I stopped awhile ago to think about that, the last time I heard about coal miners getting trapped underground for days, weeks, until they die…I thought, if people are willing to go into the bowels of the Earth to bring out fuel, at the risk of becoming crushed and losing oxygen, then surely they’re willing to work in lettuce fields, even if it means they have to work in shitty conditions, even if it means they have to work without proper access to fresh air and toilets. And it shouldn’t mean that. Ever.
What’s the difference, then? Can you guess? It’s MONEY. If we were willing to pay a decent wage, say, at least the legal MINIMUM WAGE, and offer decent benefits and maybe education and a chance at social security to the workers, then people would line up for these jobs. Think back to the dust bowl, people rushed from Oklahoma to California for just this reason. They rushed here in order to get such jobs, hoping for such jobs, for a chance to support their families and not starve to death. Has so much changed from our grandparents’ time to our own? I don’t think so.
But when people can’t make a living wage, because the state looks the other way and allows such inhuman conditions to exist, allows people to work for under the minimum wage, allows people to work without any chance to belong to the system for which they are working, allow people to be forced to defecate in the fields, because there is no clean and private place to relieve themselves (where do you think diseases in our vegetables and fruits come from, anyway?), and there is any other option available, any at all, then people will take it.
And people do. When I was a child, we lived for a short time on welfare. We accepted help from the government so that my mom could put food on the table for my brother and me. I happen to think that’s a good thing. And I also happen to think that people who are out there in the fields, working their asses off, with little to no dignity or hope, deserve to make more than those unfortunate souls relying on welfare for help.
So, if we don’t want workers to come from another country and work here in these jobs, then what we need to do is to pay decent wages, decent benefits for these jobs, so that Americans are willing and able to take these jobs, take them with pride in their work, pride in the honor of a job well done, and the ability to feed their families.
We can do that by raising the prices for produce and other products that are produced by these workers. Or, we can have the government subsidize produce. But we can’t let things stand as they are, unless we’re willing to accept foreign workers, working for sub-American wages, working for less than we consider enough for anyone we know or care about.
Until then, I don’t think we’re going to find another solution. Until then, I don’t think there is any answer.
11 Comments
apathy lounge
You get what you pay for, in other words. You pay crappy wages and those who have even less will come to snap up your awful job. In this case, immigrants. You pay well and you’ll get whatever it is you expect. Same goes for teachers. We complain about public education, but these degreed professionals make less than any other.
Jessica
Great post, Julie….
M.Green
You are right on, I think about this all the time. Our lawmakers need to fix this so that we (immigrant and non-immigrant) can all live well and healthy in this country. We can do so much better and we need to demand it.
Linda Atkins
Very well said, my dear. Reading this–you are right on every count–makes me all the madder at people who carry on about illegal immigrants, as if they’re coming here and scoring some really great stuff others would love to have, as opposed to putting up with a lot of crap in trying to care for their families. It is heartbreaking.
Starshine
Very thoughtful post.
Rain
We have to be willing to pay for what we value and too many people who don’t like illegal immigration are still profiting from it. You nailed the issue well.
ShortWoman
Amen, Julie. The bottom line is, in fact, the bottom line! I don’t see how anybody can watch a whole episode of “Dirty Jobs” and think there is such as thing as “jobs Americans won’t do.” Rather, Americans won’t work 60 hour work weeks in questionable environments for lousy wages. Don’t forget, the kind of employer willing to overlook a immigration laws is also willing to overlook wage and safety laws.
J
And, I would argue that Americans won’t work that number of hours under crappy conditions, because we have a safety net. Without welfare and other govt programs, Americans would be forced into the same level of desperation as people from other countries.
MRMacrum
Ilegal Immigration is a perfect example of the insanity that is American law. Our immigration policy is a perfect example that just passing laws does not insure that a problem will go away. Instead of finding usable solutions, our boneheads in DC and the various state legislatures want to pass new laws. If the old ones did nothing, what makes them think new ones will? The horse has been out of the barn far too long to imagine new laws having much of an effect.
Which brings up enforcement. In order for a law to work, it needs to be enforced. Without that commitment, the law belongs on the roll next to the toilet in the courthouse. Are we willing to spend the kind of money and resources needed to even have a slight hope of dealing with it? Are we willing to be fenced in as much as they are fenced out? I am not. I find the current restrictions and suspicions aimed at me as a run of the mill citizen to be counter to what I feel the United States is about. Stricter immigration laws will only give the government more power to tighten their knot on all of us.
This country has for too long decided to look the other way about illegal immigrants. They have now worked their way into our society to a point that it makes no sense to punish the ones already here. In my opinion, we should do what we have to to incorporate them into our society. Having them live under the radar is not good. For them or for the rest of us. To do this, their employment rights should be the same as the rest of us.
If we were serious about doing something about it, punitive measures are not the way to go. Huge razor wire fences won’t do it. Stupid deployments of manpower will not do it. We should be looking to the source of the immigrants and focusing at least some of our efforts there to maybe help the impoverished and /or politically tenuous areas they come from to not be places they want to leave. Economic help and development. Political pressures on oppressive governments. Dangle carrots and the horse will follow it. And threatening to remove carrots can be an attention grabber.
And I echo others when I say, Good Post J.
hellomelissa
i would say “amen” but instead i’ll say “the end.” 🙂
Ted
Very thoughtful post! I remember a program I was watching on PBS about immigration (illegal and legal) and the report mentioned that many illegals who come into the country through Mexico pay thousands of dollars to people who transport them into a remote part of the U.S. where they then have to fend for themselves and try to get to a town. Sadly, they also said that some folks die of thirst on the trip.
(Sigh)