Americans stopped doing harder jobs because rich pigs decided they’d rather employ illegals for third-world wages than obey the law.
By the way, screw you for saying my job isn’t hard work.
“Americans stopped doing harder jobs because rich pigs decided they’d rather employ illegals for third-world wages than obey the law.”
Speaking to your point, I used to know of several American owned roofing/home construction companies that did hire only Americans, and paid them a decent wage.
Until they tried to compete with all the others who hired DREAMERS. The result? Without exception the choice was to use cheap illegals or go out of business.
The Bracero program was a way to handle the seasonal labor situation, but as Regulator said, while the money was held in Mexico, it was often stolen. Developing an honest banking system, perhaps run through USAID, not Mexican banks might improve the situation. Social security deducted from the workers wages (not the employer component) could be reserved as a nest egg for return. Some jobs are not just seasonal.
For example, at a camp site in southern Alabama I spoke with a Mexican (in Spanish) about his work. This was in 2006 and he was working as part of the after Katrina clean up/build back. He was employed by an Atlanta corporation, paid $4 an hour and was painting all the new housing, not a summer job only in that climate, and was sending money home to his family in Mexico. I asked him if he could get that pay in Mexico would he rather work there or live here. When he said he preferred living in Mexico, I asked what he like best here in US aside from pay. He said that in the US the police were honest. The drug war has been a major failure and the proliferation of vicious drug gangs in Mexico is an important reason for the migration of many to the US. It is estimated that as many as 70 million Mexicans would prefer to live here. We must develop new solutions to the drug issue.
For year round work, we could have a system of contracts whereby the worker has his personal SS money reserved for payment when he returns home. Contracts could be anywhere from 1 to 4 years, but at the end of the contract they (and any dependent family with them) must return home for a year. Once they had worked a total of ten (10) contract years, they could apply for citizenship. If granted citizenship, then they would be eligible for the employer portion of their SS at retirement age. This system would have several beneficial effects. By insisting on return home with a next egg, they might decide to stay there (cheaper than foreign aid). With a total of 10 years living here they should develop a command of the language. Since they would have to return home for a year after each contract period, they would NOT be eligible for citizenship application for at least 12 years, and if not using 4 year contracts even more years. [But if the lived in one of the drug gang hotbeds, they still would not want to stay there.] So we really do need to tackle the drug gang issue more effectively. Incidentally, it is not just Mexicans. In the DC metropolitan area there are more from El Salvdor, and Guatemala. On a visit to Miami I was surprised to find a lot from Ecuador. [Anyway, this is a spur of the moment idea, what do you think?]