Business wants immigration reform. Why? Because they can't find enough workers

CNN ^

[TigerClaws]

As the nation deals with an immigration crisis at its borders, businesses are stepping up their calls for reform.

The Obama administration is desperately trying to deal with the influx of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children crossing into the United States.

The crisis may deflect Congress' attention away from doing anything meaningful over the nation's immigration laws, said Thomas Donohue, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, which represents the largest U.S. businesses. But the group still renewed its push for immigration reform.

[dragnet2]

The arrogant, corporate class cares more about the bottom line than it does about the future of the country and the welfare of our own citizens. You are part of the problem, not the solution.

Great post...Some people don't get it or are just in on the con-job. What most people are being paid nowadays is obscene, considering what the dollar is actually worth and buys.

Working for most employers in today's America is a punitive meat grinder.

Instead of deserved raises to keep up with the ever higher choking costs and prices, employers promise unobtainable phony concocted schemes like incentives, and bonus which seldom ever seen.

Then throw in all the foreign owned businesses where the employees are looked at as the enemy...Today's business strategy and executive think tanks are all about how to pay employees as little as possible, eliminate any and all benefits etc. I feel for the young people today...They're totally screwed...

[C. Edmund Wright]

wow, the economic liberals and class envy warriors are out today. If you guys knew a damned thing about running and owning a business…….oh, never mind. You don’t and you never will..

[kabar]

I have owned a business.

[dragnet2]

I didn't think that they were entitled to welfare/food stamps/Section 8 housing, etc.

Not doing the jobs Americans won’t do: 70% of illegal aliens in Texas receive welfare

Illegal aliens crossing the border to line up at the welfare office

A new study has found that a remarkable 70% of illegal aliens in Texas are on the dole. Since only 39% of native born Americans are on welfare, it makes one think that the phrase “doing the jobs Americans won’t do” should be changed to “not doing the jobs that Americans won’t do.”

The Houston Chronicle tells the terrible tale of Texas taxes:

Thirteen years after Congress overhauled the American welfare system, 57 percent of immigrants with children — those in the country legally or not — use at least one government, welfare program according to a report released Tuesday by the Center for Immigration Studies.P

In comparison, 39 percent of native-born Americans with children are signed up for welfare, the report found.

In Texas, 54 percent of legal immigrants and 70 percent of illegal immigrants receive welfare assistance, with illegal immigrants generally receiving benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children, according to the study, written by a think tank that favors reducing immigration into the U.S.

http://blog.chron.com//txpotomac/2011/04/study-70-of-texas-illegal-immigrant-families-receive-welfare/

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/70-percent-of-illegal-aliens-in-texas-receive-welfare

[dragnet2]

Class envy?

Ya mean employer by the thousands hiring illegal aliens?

The same big biz who bankrolls the corrupt campaigns of government politicians to make damn sure those borders stay open?

Is that the class envy yo’re talking about slick?

[C. Edmund Wright]

We agree on the big biz/ government alliance problems - crony capitalism is a huge problem. But your class envy, above and beyond your correct points, was / is obvious.

Yes you made a couple valid points. Yes you are eaten up with class envy.

[DungeonMaster]

Do businesses really want gay workers and to support gay partners with insurance policies? I’d say they do not but they are scared to death of not being politically correct. It think that is true with many issues including immigration. We all know how quickly the liberal media can demonize anyone or company who doesn’t play their game.

[dragnet2]

Ya think it takes some kind of genius to hire and employ illegals?

Is there something honorable or magic about this junior?

[C. Edmund Wright]

No, but it takes a genius to hire native borns who would rather sit their ass on the couch and get EBT cards, obama phones, WIC, UE and welfare……and that is the point. And if you don’t think this is a huuuuuuuuuuge factor, you’re frankly an idiot.

But go ahead, let your bitterness eat you up. No skin of my back….

[dragnet2]

You’re so full of shit...

[dragnet2]

There are nearly entire major cities full of corrupt unscrupulous employers out here who hire millions of illegals all because they work dirt cheap and think benefits mean 5 minute breaks.. Ya think this is some secret?

I’ve heard your message before junior...

[Mr. Jeeves]

If business says they can't find workers, they're actually saying "we can't find workers at the price we want to pay". Tough nuggies.

Yes, but they are also saying they can't sell their products at the prices necessary to pay American workers those wages. Americans want Apple wages and Walmart prices. If you are buying $19 Chinese-made jeans at Target rather than $158 American-made jeans at an independently-owned store, you are part of the problem. See how that works?

Unfortunately, American lifestyle expectations were set during the massive growth phase from 1950-1985, and still can't easily be geared down to match the no-growth economy that we are currently enjoying thanks to liberals in government. Using illegals and cheap foreign labor is just a Band-Aid to get through the next quarter's financial results - eventually, all those losses from over-expansion in the face of zero growth are going to show up on corporate balance sheets. Then there will be no work for anybody...but we'll still have 30-50 million new mouths for the Holy Mother Welfare State to feed.

[dragnet2]

And you’re still attacking what’s left of middle America...

I’ve got nothing but contempt for this kind of thinking. You want illegal workers who will work dirt cheap, who will work their asses off without complaint, as beat down tax payers subsidize their healthcare, food costs and housing.

You’re almost there junior, as your corrupt lawless government has nearly made American citizenship all but pointless, as they drive in freight trains full of your low wage peasants.

Profits regardless of consequences has nearly left America dead on the floor.

[Fee]

Oldest game you employers play. Select American candidates from no name schools vs foreign born students from great colleges. Have a test, see the results, American candidates suck and foreign ones are qualified. I got students from great tech schools whose resumes are ignored while foreign born students from the same tech schools are snatched up for next level interviews. Maybe at your level you prefer American workers vs the paperwork of H-1B, but someone in HR thinks otherwise. Situation got so abusive that Computer World (a pro IT mag) had to write an article on the subject. I think Congress should investigate this so call skill/tech gap between US and foreign candidates. Colleges claim US leads in higher education and thousands of foreign students flock to US vs home country. About 2/3 of the students do not grad or change majors. Top US colleges are tough. Top of the line US school charge huge tuitions and hold high reputations yet their IT grads have the same unemployment rate as no name colleges???!!!! So either corporations are lying about the quality of US grads or the top US tech colleges are lying about the quality of their high price education.

[Fee]

See post 45. Got an employer who claims most of his US candidates cannot pass basic software test. Either he does not know or knows the game that is played. Interview 100 people, pick US candidates from no name schools and foreign candidates from great schools. Subject them to a test, viola, US candidates fail and foreign ones pass. See the US has a shortage of skilled IT workers, need more H-1B slots!!!! It is very funny, IT industry presents themselves as cool and progressive, but closer look they are no more ruthless as the industrial barons of the late 19th century. Keep this up and main street Americans will quit the Tea Party and join OWS. Atleast OWS will march to CEO homes in masks and holding torches and put the fear in them.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Then businesses need to do what they need to do to produce the products at the prices people want. If they can't they go out of business. What they have no right to do is to import tens of millions of foreigners, to drive down wages, increase crime, disease, violence and destroy our culture. And pocket all the profit from this and shove all the costs onto the American People.

That's their plan and that's what their doing.

Like I said, they are destroying the basis of their own existence as profit-making businesses which rely on a solid, vibrant American culture. They're morons.

[Praxeologue]

On illegal immigration, conservatives/tea party have a solid, winnable electoral issue. The facts must be conveyed, through the fog of the media distortion field:

- illegal immigration costs $130 billion per year, $325 per year for every American;

- illegal immigration takes jobs from both native Americans and legal immigrants;

- specifically, illegal immigration causes Black unemployment and Hispanic unemployment;

- Hispanic-American citizens oppose amnesty in any form;

- business is shooting itself in the foot by advocating amnesty; and

- illegal immigration results in the lowest quality of immigrant.

Add welfare and crime statistics.

The GOPe is not going to pick up this issue, so it is ready-made for conservatives and the Tea Party, with the support of 60% to 70% of voters, even more if you exclude illegal alien voters.

[kabar]

The GOP has a winning issue on reducing LEGAL IMMIGRATION from the current 1.1 million permanent legal immigrants annually. The status quo on legal immigration will make the Dems the permanent majority party.

[poinq]

If you go to any top engineering school or school with a good engineering department, they have career days. Lots of HR people flock to those schools to pick the engineers and Computer Science grads.

At Northwestern and many other schools, they have a separate career day for tech students (engineers and computer science). The companies actually sponsor the career day, buying free food and giving away gifts to the prospects. These American techies are offered signing bonuses and free travel (flights, hotel, and good diners) to visit the companies. English grads don’t even hear about this career day.

I was just at RPI, they had a post on their Union bulletin board. It had the average, high and low of their 2013 grads 6 months after graduation. Every engineering major was over $60K for an average salary. Programmers were the highest with $80K starting salary. Virtually all the grads had jobs or were in grad school or peace corp. It was like 98%.

When you hire programmers from India or China. They have normally learned to program at Indian or Chinese colleges. They don’t learn anything here. The college visa is just to get here and time to learn English. They mock our colleges as being far beneath them.

Face it, calculus is required to learn physics. Engineering requires physics. Most high schools don’t teach calculus in American schools until senior year in high school. And most Americans don’t even take that. So they don’t really take physics in high school. In the rest of the world Calculus is taught to all college bound high schoolers three years earlier. We even finagled physics so you take a physics class without calculus. Thats like taking basketball without a hoop.

Chinese and Indians are not smarter than us. But their top 1% is 33% larger than our top 1%. In each country there are over 10 million people in the top 1%. Only 250K can get into this country from anywhere in the world a year through the H1B program.

America should take these people if they want to come here. They don’t take jobs. They create jobs. One foreign programmer creates product manger jobs, tester jobs, call center jobs, training jobs. And several other jobs like sales which foreigners can’t do.

[poinq]

I live in an upper middle class suburb of Chicago. I am sure our suburb has a facsimile in every American city. My kids go to public schools. But they don’t learn Math, Sports or Music there. Frankly they don’t learn foreign languages either.

Most of the kids take Math at places outside of school. There are several companies that have popped up to teach math to those who have trouble with it. And also teach math to those who excel at math. Our school system is regarded as one of the top in the country. But its not. Math is taught outside school but the school takes credit.

The same is true for Music and Sports and French. Our school has German teachers who are not German, they are Russian. French is taught badly from someone who took French in college but has never lived outside this country. And everyone in the high school band and orchestra have their own private teachers. Even the golf and tennis team members all have their own private coaches. Quality is not taught in public schools.

Most of the teachers have education, history and English degrees. They simply aren’t qualified to do their jobs. We pay top dollars for our teachers but none have gone to top colleges. The only reason they are paid as high as they are is because the people around here think high pay means better teachers. And you can’t fire the teachers as soon as they become tenure. Over a hundred resumes come in for each opening. And as likely as not, the opening goes to a friend or child of a current teacher. You would think that a district who can pick the best of the best would not need to offer tenure. And would want to re-evaluate their staff every year. But no.