Posted on 04/01/2006 8:25:19 AM PST by B4Ranch
Immigration cited as reason for U.S. losses
It's a widespread belief, one reinforced by public officials including President Bush: ``Illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won't do.''
But it's being challenged in a five-year study that concludes millions of undereducated Americans are without work in a labor market oversaturated by illegal immigrants.
Steven Camarota, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors reduced immigration, released the findings Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The study calls into question the theory that America is desperately short of underskilled workers, Camarota said. More importantly, he added, the research concluded that illegal immigration had a direct effect on job loss for native-born workers.
Employers who hire from the vast pool of illegal immigrants avoid paying workers' compensation, health benefits, Social Security and a whole slew of labor law requirements, he said.
From backbreaking jobs in the meatpacking industry to janitorial work, the research showed that from 2000 to 2005, participation in the labor force by U.S.-born adults without a high school degree fell from 59 percent to 56 percent. Among U.S.-born adults with a high school degree, participation dropped from 78 percent to 75 percent, according to the study.
During the same time, the number of adult immigrant workers with a high school degree or less increased by 1.5 million people … rising from 15.5 percent of the work force to 17.4 percent. In a hot political climate where ``guest-worker'' programs are being debated on Capitol Hill and anti-immigrant groups are protesting outside day labor centers across Southern California, the study's release comes as immigration is taking center stage.
Senate and congressional debates rely heavily on unsubstantiated information about the labor market and illegal immigration, Camarota said.
``There is nothing wrong with immigration; it's a very powerful force in the United States labor market,'' Camarota said. ``But the idea that immigrants are doing the jobs Americans won't do is absurd on its face. There are no such jobs that Americans won't do, because most of the jobs in America are done by native-born (residents).''
The number of American-born high school dropouts with jobs declined from 2000 to 2005 by 1.3 million, the study estimated. Census data collected in the study revealed that 4 million Americans between the ages of 18 to 64 with a high school education or less are unemployed, while 19 million others are not in the labor force.
However, Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute, who has conducted similar research into income and wage inequality, said the issue is not necessarily illegal immigration, but a sign of the U.S. market underperforming.
Bernstein said the lack of job creation in the U.S. over the past five years has contributed to the growth of unemployment for all unskilled laborers.
The overall weak demand for labor, outsourcing of U.S. jobs and low minimum wage contributes more to job loss among Americans than illegal immigration, Bernstein added.
Bernstein did not dispute the report's findings but did disagree with its conclusion.
``This is more of a sign of a labor market underperforming in general than an immigrant group doing better,'' Bernstein said. ``But the deterioration is worse for native than foreign-born. It's a pretty tough labor market for everybody.''
Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, and John McCain, R-Ariz., have proposed a guest-worker program that would admit 400,000 foreign workers annually. The Bush administration is looking for an open-ended guest-worker plan.
President Bush proposed that a guest-worker program ``match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs. The program would be open to new foreign workers and to the undocumented men and women currently employed in the U.S.''
The administration's proposal falls in line with what the Mexican government has been seeking for a guest-worker program, said Raphael Laveaga, in an earlier interview. Laveaga, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., said both nations must work together to create a guest-worker program.
``We are neighbors and friends,'' Laveaga said. ``A guest- worker program that takes into consideration the needs of both nations is important in combating the issues of migration.''
The proposals have led to the organization of hundreds of anti-illegal immigrant groups across the United States, from the Minuteman civilian border watch groups to Friends of the Border Patrol, chaired by Andy Ramirez of Chino. These groups argue that guest-worker programs should not be considered until the southern border with Mexico is secured.
``President Bush outsources high-tech jobs and imports illegal immigrant labor,'' Ramirez said. ``The question is, what happens to middle-class America?''
Camarota argues against the administration's stance for a guest-worker program, saying it harms the American worker. He added that cultural misperceptions of what illegal immigrants are willing to do, along with cost-cutting by employers, contribute to the growing number of illegal immigrants being hired in the United States.
Unemployment remains relatively high for some native-born groups … 9.3 percent for African-Americans and 12.7 percent for white teenagers, the study finds.
``If you flood the bottom of the labor market, it doesn't matter what laws you pass, they are unenforceable … the supply and demand will be overwhelming,'' Camarota said. ``It always trumps labor laws.''
KEY POINTS
A study released Wednesday by the Center of Immigration Studies challenges the notion that illegal immigrants are doing the jobs Americans won't do. It concluded that undereducated native-born Americans are without work partly because the labor market is oversaturated by illegal immigrants.
• Some of the occupations most affected by immigration include maids, construction workers, dishwashers, janitors, painters, cabbies, groundskeepers and meat/poultry workers. Workers in these occupations are overwhelmingly native-born.
• The workers themselves are not the only thing to consider: Nearly half of American children younger than 18 are dependent on a less-educated worker, and 71 percent of children of the native-born working poor depend on a worker with a high school degree or less.
• Native-born teenagers (15 to 17) also saw their labor force participation fall from 30 percent in 2000 to 24 percent in 2005.
• Wage data show little evidence of a labor shortage. Wage growth for less-educated natives has generally lagged.
Source: Center for Immigration Studies
Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552.
Haven't read the whole thing but it looks interesting.
Of course Google will not show and bias towards the illegals. Take a hike.
....
But even people here are seeing the signs, especially with the big homebuilders. They're hiring more and more illegals for construction and finishing work, driving down prices for local firms and forcing them to cut wages and benefits and even fire people. This is nothing but greed on the part of the builders. They are not passing the savings on to home buyers.
bump
Google doesn't write the news, they just index it.
Nor do that write the help wanted ads.
Well...we know this is a crock:
Illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won't do.''
~ April Fool mayhaps?
:How about : don't want to do? If a person can live on welfare or off of another person who works/collects benefits, why would he do dirty, hard, low-payed work. End all benefits for able bodied people and attitudes about such work will change.
We also need to get over our fixation that every American should go to college. A tremendous amount of work, both skilled and unskilled, does not need any college. Young people hear a constant drumbeat about college to the point that they hear they are not worthy if they do not go to college, a false message, IMHO
BTTT
DOUG from Upland started with this thread U.S. BORDER PATROL: Turn In Illegal Aliens (and EMPLOYERS, followed by this one U.S. BORDER CONTROL Turn in illegal aliens
Go to either thread for more details on what to do. The TOLL FREE number to report ILLEGAL aliens or those employing ILLEGAL aliens to ICE is: 866-347-2423
How it works:
You are not required to provide your identity to ICE. All that is necessary to request an investigation by ICE is mere suspicion of any activity by ILLEGAL aliens.
ICE and the IRS are especially interested in "visiting" those businesses that employ ILLEGALS "off the books" to avoid the payment of payroll taxes.
I suggest looking around and see if you might spot a suspect. At work, at school, at a job sight, Micky D's, Store etc.
On the day(current plan is May 1) of this march check to see if you can determine if someone took the day off. Confirming grounds for suspicion.
:) Easy Does It
I think the base idea behind bringing in the illegals is to break the unions, get companies to cut back on benefits, especially retirement plans, get socialized medicine going and lower wages which will eliminate the middle class.
Then we will have a nation that fits more in line with 3rd world nations. Two classes of people instead of three, rich and poor instead of rich, poor and the 'comfortable middle class'.
The 'comfortable middle class' are people who don't have desires for their own private airplanes, inhome help, ie servants. They have their midsized lake craft, the RV, a couple of SUV's and the cottage at the summer place, not six homes on four continents with permanently staffed with hired help.
Make a phone call.
I get so angry whenever I hear some politician say that illegals are "doing the jobs that Americans won't do". I did these jobs and so did my brothers and sisters, our friends, kids in our school. The thing is, we did these jobs as teenagers. These were our first jobs. I worked in a fast food restaurant when I was 15 and then went to work at a movie theater and became assistant manager when I was 17. My sister got her first job as a maid at a Travelodge. My brothers worked in restaurants as busboys, dishwashers, and cooks. When I would go to McDonalds on a Friday night, the kid serving me was the same kid who was in one of my high school classes. So, this is really offensive. It's as if these elites want to tell us that we're all lazy and that none of these jobs would be done if it weren't for illegals.
ICE has no intention of dedicating funds to arresting and deporting the common illegal worker. They are currently interested in gang members and felons only.
The Chinese know that.
Is the President so retarded in his thinking and understanding of this issue that he still believes this? Or is he being disingenuous? Scary either way!
It is something that he is refusing to see the truth about.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1607447/posts
Lock and load and buy LOTS of rope.
Then we begin again.
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