Thread: 'Jobs that Americans won't do'

'Jobs that Americans won't do'

With millions of native-born people desperate for income, those jobs presumed to be too menial are now acceptable – a point to remember in the immigration debate.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board
from the September 1, 2009 edition

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With fewer jobs for Americans these days, are there fewer jobs that Americans won't do?

The answer will influence whether Congress decides to grant amnesty to some 11 million illegal immigrants in the US, perhaps by next year.

Most illegal workers in the US are Mexicans who mow lawns, clean motel sheets, butcher hogs, pick strawberries, and otherwise toil away at tasks that, as George W. Bush once said, "Americans won't do." And they often are paid less than the minimum wage.

A widely held assumption in Washington's debate about immigration is that native-born Americans avoid menial and dirty work. Laid-off autoworkers wouldn't really wash dishes at a Denny's or milk cows on a dairy farm, would they? Such a notion has long helped justify a flow of foreign workers into the US – or possibly an amnesty for those hiding from the law.

Recent recessions have been short enough that jobless Americans who rely on government benefits waited for a "good job" to return. But this "Great Recession" has been long and deep. The unemployment rate has doubled from 4.7 to 9.4 percent, and it may keep rising into next year. Many layoffs appear permanent as whole industries have collapsed and new fields, such as clean energy, are slow to emerge. The percentage of Americans "mal-employed" – working below their skill or education – is higher than in recent recessions.

With people desperate for income, downward mobility may be on the way up. News reports show long lines of applicants for a janitor's job or for work at a factory after a federal raid clears out the illegal workers.

Maybe it's a myth that Americans won't take certain jobs. In fact, a study by the Center for Immigration Studies used 2005-07 data to look at 465 occupations. Only four had a majority of immigrants in them: plasterers and stucco masons, agricultural graders and sorters, personal appliance workers, and tailors and dressmakers.

In every other occupation, such as janitors, maids, and groundskeepers, a large majority were filled by native-born Americans. The report's conclusion: "The often-made argument that immigrants only take jobs Americans don't want is simply wrong."

The US job market is too dynamic to be easily segmented. Americans move too often for new jobs – more than a third live outside the state in which they were born. This recession can help bust the myth that native-born workers are too snooty to get their boots dirty in farm fields and back shops.

Maybe then a key plank for an amnesty will be removed.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0901/p08s01-comv.html

One better what job has American Citizens not done? Deport all illegal aliens and anchor babies.

What gets me the most is that many jobs even before the economy took a down turn were ones Americans would do. Construction, maintenance work, cleaning hotel rooms and fast food jobs used to be done my American citizens and legal immigrants. It is the greed factor that caused illegals to get them and get paid less.

And it follows that Americans also pay taxes that illegals won't!

I think there is also a stigma attached to people who have not been upwardly mobile in their careers, like the dishwasher not striving to manage the restaurant. There has also been a huge push for the need for a college education for everyone, legal or not. It is the same kind of societal pressure years ago that made sure little girls played only with dolls, and strived to become mommies, nurses or teachers.

And with the new Cap and Trade taxes and possible Fair Taxing the government will care if any American has a "JOB". They will still be rolling in the money from sale taxes on the money the illegal aliens are spending.

As I asked -- three plus years ago when I first came out into the web--where are all the neighbors I used to have who were carpenters and sheet rockers, painters and roofers??

And to top it off-let me tell you--I am in my third house since 1996. I recntly downsized for retirement. The second home appeared to have all Hispanic work crews. The GC told me that I would have to pay more for the house if she hired Americans . I asked her how much and when she could do it. I was told that it was too late. Every darned doorframe was built too large. The floor in the sitting room curved downward at the loutside wall. They were able to hire American crews to fix that but for full time????? Shoddy, unskilled work and then I found they hire them to wire houses-holy mackerel.....

We moved into our smaller home when I retired three years ago. I was here and able to see that almost all the workers were American. The minute I let the contractor handle it--si, se puede all over the place and I had to lay down the law to the contractor. It is clearly the employers who cause the problem--it is the government who has let it get out of hand by failing to perform their sworn duty.

Most of the illegal aliens working construction have it very good. They're working mainly with forged social security cards, often driving a company work van, and getting paid very well. It is time for Americans to take back this industry from illegal aliens; hard working Americans used to do these jobs and would be happy to do them again if they didn't have to work with non English speaking illegals.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4488--0-0.html

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS JOBS THAT AMERICANS WON'T DO WHO DO THEY, THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SAYING THIS, THINK DID THESE JOBS BEFORE ILLEGAL ALIENS CAME HERE? I HAVE WASHED DISHES, FLIPPED BURGERS AND CLEANED #2 OFF OF OLD PEOPLE. AND I NEVER THOUGHT THAT ANY OF THESE JOBS WERE BENEATH ME. IN FACT, I LOVED THE LAST ONE BECAUSE I LOVED WORKING IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. AND I HAD A LOT OF OTHER AMERICANS WORKING ALONG SIDE ME AND THAT WAS A HAPPY TIME IN MY WORKING LIFE. THE WORK WE DID WAS NOT CLEAN ALL THE TIME BUT, SOMEBODY HAD TO DO IT. AND WE DID IT AND WE NEVER COMPLAINED BECAUSE THATS WHAT WE TRAINED TO DO. AND EVEN TODAY I REALLY MISS WORKING AS A CNA.