Let's see how they like it...

[serene]

...when there's no one to do the work they don't want to do.

From today's Marketplace Midday Report:

"This week, Florida federal agents arrested 183 illegal immigrants from 26 different countries. It was the largest sweep in state history and rumors of more raids caused many undocumented workers to stay home for fear of being apprehended."

(Waiting on input from both of the clients I'm working for today, so I'm doing housework and playing online and jobhunting while I wait.)

Comments

Other Side of the Coin

[revcarol.livejournal.com]

What you said is absolutely true, but there is another side to it. My daughter moved to California a few years ago, and had to come back after three months, because she couldn't find any job at all. It didn't appear to her that all of the entry level positions were filled by US citizens, either. There's always the possibility that she was wrong about that but I'n not so sure that she was.

Re: Other Side of the Coin

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

It didn't appear to her that all of the entry level positions were filled by US citizens, either.

How would she know if they were citizens or not? Was this based on ethnicity? Ability to speak English? And are you talking about illegal immigrants or non-US citizens with legal permission to work here?

As a life-long Northern Californian resident who has worked in the agricutural, manufacturing, government/education and high-tech industries I have rarely seen illegal immigrants in anything but the toughest and least-desireable jobs, such as working fields as a migrant farm worker. I worked for a large poultry company for several years and the bottom-rung jobs (working on the line of the chicken plant, loading live birds onto turkey/chicken trucks, etc.) were often augmented during peak season with workers from outside the US with green cards. These were jobs that were nearly impossible to keep filled as they were so physically demanding and miserable, and the company relied on the influx of labor they could legally obtain from Mexico. In high-tech it is not uncommon to have white collar jobs filled with individuals in the states on a work visa. This is common practice throughout the country. The sad thing is, I doubt that people think the same way about the Canadian high-tech worker, working at a national lab on a work visa (such as my ex-boyfriend) and the Mexican national working as a turkey loader (trust me, one of the worst jobs on the planet) with a green card. They both are not citizens, but generally speaking, only the one doing "unskilled" labor, in one of the shittiest (literally) jobs imagineable is accused of "taking work away" from US citizens. I find this a very unfair and unjust assessment.

California has had a tough job economy for the past six-seven years, and in some places like the Central Valley it has been bad for decades. It is a fact of life out here. The competition for jobs, especially 2-4 years ago, was fierce. I knew many, many highly skilled professionals who were out of work, any work, for many months to years. I am sorry your daughter was unable to find work out here, but three months of searching in this economny is not much at all, and I seriously doubt it had anything to do with illegal immigrants or legal non-US citizens.

Re: Other Side of the Coin

[revcarol.livejournal.com]

It didn't appear to her that all of the entry level positions were filled by US citizens, either.

"How would she know if they were citizens or not? Was this based on ethnicity? Ability to speak English? And are you talking about illegal immigrants or non-US citizens with legal permission to work here?"

Point taken.

My sincere apologies for my daughter leaping to conclusions and for my accepting them at face value. I should have considered this situation more deeply before accepting the information without question, and for making a post based on ignorance.

Re: Other Side of the Coin

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you and no worries. The assumption made is a common one and it is just something that I am particularly attuned to and feel a need to respond to.

Re: Other Side of the Coin

[revcarol.livejournal.com]

Whew! After I posted that, I thought, "Boy, that could sure be taken as sarcasm!" I'm relieved that you took it the way that it was intended. Thank you.