Help wanted
The discussion on immigration has to start with employment
December 18, 2007

Crabmeat.

That's one thing the immigration issue comes down to: Who will pick crabs so we can have she-crab soup and crab dip and viable seafood processing plants in Virginia?

For decades, crab-picking meant a paycheck for people who for whatever reasons, having to do with lack of education or skill or racial equality, didn't have many other options. It can be a difficult job, in conditions that involve cold, dampness, smell, repetitive motions and pressure to produce.

Now it's done by people from other countries. As John Graham III of Hampton-based Graham & Rollins explained in Sunday's Daily Press, processors are concerned about what they'll do if they can't bring in workers from Mexico. He relies on a seasonal guest worker program, a legal path for foreign workers, because few locals want his jobs. But that program is about to expire, a victim of political wrangling and grandstanding over immigration.

What happened to the American workers who used to pick crabs? Butcher our chickens? Roof our buildings? Staff our hospitality industry? Cut our grass?

Why won't they do it any more?

Is it because we have built enough of a safety net — subsidized housing, free medical care, Food Stamps, welfare, school breakfast and lunch programs — that unskilled Americans don't have to do unappealing jobs in order to feed themselves and their families?

But those jobs have appeal — to illegal immigrants. They don't come to sponge off America — they're barred from getting those social benefits American citizens can claim — but to take jobs that need to be done.

The solution to illegal immigration can't be found just in fences and detention centers and heavy-handed law enforcement. It has to address the fact that people come here because there are jobs to be done and money to be made, and the lure of those jobs is strong enough to overcome the (slight) chance of detection and deportation. It has to address the fact that factories, businesses and service industries depend on foreign workers, legal or not. A national solution that doesn't make provisions for a work force for them won't succeed.

Unless we're willing to give up houses we can afford and clean bathrooms in our hotel rooms and cheap chicken nuggets. And crab dip.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/ ... 2707.story