Is It True There Are Jobs Americans Won't Do?

Posted By Rich Kozlovich

Is it true that there are jobs American's won't do?  Is it true that we "need" comprehensive immigration reform to save the nation's economy?  Let's stop emoting over this.  What we need is clarity.  I know how an emotional issue this thing is - however, there is a difference between the emotion and the realities.

I often hear the phrase "There are jobs Americans just won't do" - but that's a myth - nor is it a well thought out statement. America is not in desperate need of comprehensive imigration reform for our economic stability or our economic progress. That’s a logical fallacy!  And worse yet it's a lie being perpetrated by the very ones responsible for the nation's economic mess - corrupt leftist politicos, on both sides of the aisle who love the status quo and who would sacrifice the nation for their own gain, businessmen that only see the immediate short term gain unconcerned about the long term consequences, and socialists wanting to destroy the nation by overturning the Constitution. 

These articles outline the issues, the claims and reality. 

The only thing holding the nation back has nothing to do with some new comprehensive immigration policy.  It’s taxes and regulations and massive spending that is on the verge of bankrupting America.  But the left and their minions in government and the media would have us believe it’s a lack of comprehensive immigration reform, whatever that means.  Let’s open our eyes!

  'Work Americans Will Not Do' Is a Myth,
By Thomas Sowell, Thursday, 13 Jun 2013

 

One of the most common arguments for allowing more immigration is that there is a "need" for foreign workers to do "jobs that Americans won't do," especially in agriculture……In a market economy, when farmers are seeking more farm workers, the most obvious way to get them is to raise the wage rate until they attract enough people away from alternative occupations — or from unemployment……With the higher labor costs that this would entail, the number of workers that farmers "need" would undoubtedly be less than what it would have been if there were more workers available at lower wage rates, such as immigrants from Mexico…….It is no doubt more convenient and profitable to the farmers to import workers at lower pay than to pay American workers more. But bringing in more immigrants is not without costs to other Americans, including both financial costs in a welfare state and social costs, of which increased crime rates are just one……Some advocates of increased immigration have raised the specter of higher food prices without foreign farm workers. But the price that farmers receive for their produce is usually a fraction of what the consumers pay at the supermarket. And what the farmers pay the farm workers is a fraction of what the farmer gets for the produce.  In other words, even if labor costs doubled, the rise in prices at the supermarket might be barely noticeable……Virtually every kind of "work that Americans will not do" is in fact work that Americans have done for generations. In many cases, most of the people doing that work today are Americans. And there are certainly many unemployed Americans available today, without bringing in more foreign workers to meet farmers' "needs.".....
 

Myths (and Truths) of the Illegal Immigration Invasion,
By David Huntwork

Now that the Mexican flags have once again been neatly folded and tucked away in the sock drawer, and civilization has successfully weathered a 'Day without Immigrants,' maybe the time has come for us to actually have a rational dialogue on illegal immigration. Preferably in English if you don't mind. A variety of myths and misconceptions have been purposefully propagated by those who would like us to see illegal aliens as mere 'undocumented workers' who have every right to the privileges once reserved for actual citizens of the United States. Immigration 'activists' use bumper sticker slogans and simplistic sound bites repeated over and over in an attempt to win the hearts and minds of the American people. We are all descended from immigrants one way or another, but to muddy the stream of thought with the assertion that there is little difference between an illegal and a legal immigrant is a smart tactical, if dishonest, move and one that sows confusion in those attempting to make sense of this national debateI'd like to address just a few of the myths that have been spread about illegal immigration:

Illegal immigrants are only doing work Americans won't do……
 

Immigration and Jobs Myth #2:“American Workers won’t be Displaced”
The rhetoric for more high-skilled visas is intensifying. In a Politico Magazine article, Vivek Wadhwa – a research director for engineering at Duke University – penned a blistering admonishment about the United States’ “crazy, upside-down immigration system,” which he believes is making no progress in securing high-skilled workers.  Hoping the President will use his pen and phone “to clarify policies that presently cause skilled workers to be treated like common criminals by immigration authorities,” Wadhwa claims more than one million skilled immigrants have been “held hostage to political wrangling” and are tired of being in “immigration limbo.” So tired – they are leaving, which in his opinion will be the downfall of America.

“The loser is the United States, because it is limiting its economic growth and creating its own competition,” said Wadhwa. “America’s economic prosperity and the human rights of millions are at stake.”   Our country’s prosperity has been at stake for the last several years. Not because of fleeing immigrants who have high-skilled visas, but job-stifling policies implemented by an out-of-touch Administration. Obamacare, hailed to be a job creator prior to its passage, has turned America into a part-time working nation. If comprehensive immigration reform is passed, it will further bruise our struggling job market……

Myth Busting: Jobs Americans Won't Do
By Michael W. Cutler
Senior Special Agent, INS (Ret.)
Senior Fellow, Californians for Population Stabilization

August 26, 2013

For many years, advocates for immigration anarchy, a/k/a “Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” have pushed a fallacious statement about “jobs Americans won't do” to convince Americans that illegal aliens are not taking American jobs because they do the work Americans won't do.  The reality is that each and every day American workers of every race, religion and ethnicity trudge off to jobs that are filthy, arduous and, in fact, dangerous. Americans work as coal miners, construction workers, firefighters and garbage collectors. They work in steel foundries and shipyards, and they serve our nation and their communities as law enforcement officers. And well more than 2 million serve as active or reserve personnel in the five branches of the U.S. military.

On August 18, 2013, CBS News in NYC reported that hundreds of hopeful carpenter apprentices had camped – some for more than a week – outside the offices of the carpenters' union hoping that they might become apprentices. This was no “reality show,” but reality!.....The only thing exceptional about foreign workers is that they are willing to work for exceptionally low wages. Day laborers often do jobs that should be done by skilled tradesmen, but their employers know that they can slash labor costs by hiring illegal alien workers who lack the skills but are easy to exploit.....