Study Shows Immigration Enforcement Raised Wages

The Bulletin ^ | Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Bradley Vasoli

[Delacon]

While much of the immigration debate has long concerned how to fill “jobs that Americans won’t do,” a report examining one instance of immigration enforcement takes issue with that premise.

Jerry Kammer, a senior research fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), wrote a backgrounder released yesterday that examines the impact of immigration enforcement on six meat-processing plants owned by Swift & Co. As a result of heightened screening and a major December 2006 workplace raid, plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado and Utah lost an estimated 3,000 illegal-immigrant workers to firings and arrests.

How did the plants cope? Each of the six facilities took between four and five months to restart full production. But after that point, Swift was reportedly able to staff its four beef plants and two pork plants with native-born and legal-immigrant workers.

Swift could do so, Mr. Kammer wrote, in part because of the signing bonuses and wage hikes it adopted for at least four of the plants after 2006. These new policies amounted on average to a 7.7-percent increase in earnings for those plants’ production workers.

Mr. Kammer said the relevant data shows whether or not a job is one Americans will do partly depends on how lucrative that job is. That, he added, often doesn’t remain static.

“It’s just that certain jobs are defined as ‘immigrant jobs’ over time,” he said.

Other immigration experts take a different view of the success of the Swift plants in reconstructing its production staffs with native-born Americans and other legal residents.

Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks U.S.A., said some reporting on the Swift plants suggests while they saw an upsurge in domestic workers in the short term, they had difficulty retaining many of those workers because of the arduous working conditions.

Ms. Jacoby said companies that are forced to raise wages too rapidly sometimes face difficulty continuing their operations in the United States because they end up passing the increased costs onto their consumers, thereby making their products less competitive.

“There’s only so high they can go and remain competitive with global products,” she said, adding she did believe wages must meet a reasonable living standard. “I’m not defending below-market wages or indecent wages, but I am saying there is a limit to how much employers in certain industries can raise the wages and still remain competitive.”

United States Department of Agriculture statistics cited in the CIS study showed, in the case of meat products, wages and benefits for production workers account for between 7 and 9 percent of consumer prices. Hence, according to those figures, if pay and benefits to those workers went up by a third, retail prices would go up by a maximum of 3 percent.

A major policy implication of the study, Mr. Kammer said, is that President Barack Obama and Congress should rethink their hope to amnesty the vast majority of illegal aliens currently residing in the U.S. Such a policy was tried before in 1986 and, he said, that has only swelled the influx of illegals because immigrants in the U.S. spread the word about the generosity of America’s immigration policy to relatives back home.

“Instead of amnesty controlling it or containing it, it led to a vast expansion of it,” he said. “The immigration networks work with great efficiency.”

Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us

[Delacon]

A major policy implication of the study, Mr. Kammer said, is that President Barack Obama and Congress should rethink their hope to amnesty the vast majority of illegal aliens currently residing in the U.S. Such a policy was tried before in 1986 and, he said, that has only swelled the influx of illegals because immigrants in the U.S. spread the word about the generosity of America’s immigration policy to relatives back home.

[Delacon]

ping

[knarf]

The only blue collar wage increase I've ever received was 3%.

Not much of a mathematician, I'm guessing a 7+% increase on 5$ is what? .. about $0.30?

[ScottinVA]

“Each of the six facilities took between four and five months to restart full production”

That’s called: “paying the price for effing up in the first place.”

I never do business with any firm that hires illegals. Don’t even have to ask them about the country of origin - include on ANY work contract the statement:

“This firm abides to the letter of all United States laws pertaining to immigration. This firm does not hire or compensate any person who is illegally present in the United States.”

As a Realtor who has been in the business for five years, I’ve found this works every time. Just the presence of the wording is sufficient to weed out the cheaters.

[cripplecreek]

Unfortunately Swift has been the recipent of a good many radical somali employees. Nice to know that terrorists are handling our food.

I’ll pay more for food processed by Americans.

[NordP]

It was always, ---jobs that Americans won't do... for that amount of money!!!

[Delacon]

Well, it may not seem a lot but if you take into consideration that the national annual raise average runs at around 4-6%(depending on job and industry), that 7.7% increase is quite generous.

[Roccus]

Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks U.S.A., said some reporting on the Swift plants suggests while they saw an upsurge in domestic workers in the short term, they had difficulty retaining many of those workers because of the arduous working conditions.

...and the problem is....????

This is how it should be. Workers at those arduous jobs now have the where-with-all to seek better jobs and move on and up. Just as it costs money to work, it costs money to look for work.

[MortMan]

DUH!

[Zeppelin]

It was always, ---jobs that Americans won't do... for that amount of money!!!

Amen!

I'm an engineer...young but making good money...if you could promise me a job sweeping floors for $75/hr, I'd quit my job TODAY.

[Condor51]

ms Tamar Jacoby is full of shiite. If the PAY is reasoianable jobs will be filled and stay filled, by AMERICANS and LEGAL immigrants.

In the Glory Days of the Chicago Stockyards, the Meat Packing Plants like Swift and Armour were RIGHT THERE - IN the Chicago Stockyards. Ramps from the Cattle Pens went right into the plants - first to the Slaughterhouse.

Young women and men are shown
weighing and packing mince meat at
a table in the mince meat department
of Armour's packing house in
Chicago, Illinois. (circa 1893)

Men and boys are shown filling skins
in the sausage department of Armour's
great meat packing house in
Chicago, Illinois. (circa 1893)

And the Plants STAYED in Chicago, until ... UNIONS... made it impossible for both the Stockyards and Packing Plants to stay there. Even until the 1950's both remained 'basically' unchanged. Only the workers changed, from white immigrants shown above, likely Polish, then to Blacks. The final downfall of 'The Yards' and Plants occurred as I recall around 1960 when a new and larger Stockyards opened in Kansas City, so the plants followed. And there were NO UNIONS there.

That was one thing I loved as a kid. Living a mile west of the Yards we could go right to the Packing House and get a 'fresh' ham from Armour (and Swift). The downside was an East Wind, that's when that 'smell' would come. Ya never really got used to it.

And until the mid sixties there were still a few holdouts who remained. We used to ride our bikes to a Lamb/Sheep processing plant. You would be only a few feet from the door where the Lambs were led to slaughter. The lead animal had a bell and the rest followed .. like sheep (pun intended). Then a worker would zap them in the head with a prod and kill em right there. (Hey? How come that didn't scar my young fragile mind for life? /s)

[Ancesthntr]

If word of wage increases, or simply available jobs, that result from the enforcement of our immigration laws gets out, the plans of Pelosi and the Dems to flood this country with illegals will go the way of the 4 winds.

Get the word out. Dethrone the anti-American witch from her position, and the outlook for this country will improve in a multitude of ways.

[HiJinx]

Ping!