Thread: Jack Welch (GE) know 'jack' about illegals...

from BUSINESS WEEK Issue of Feb 25, page 096:
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February 14, 2008, 5:00PM EST text size: TT
Immigration: A Reality Check
How do we deal with this complex problem? Try looking at it from a managerial angle
by Jack and Suzy Welch

Do you have a stand on immigration? — Stephen Barnard, Oxnard, Calif.

We do, and since you asked us this question at a conference, we know you do, too, rooted in your livelihood as the owner of several avocado farms. "People are making this issue insanely complicated and political," you told us. "It's economic. All immigrants are here for is work. If we don't find a simple, fair way to keep them in this country, it will kill thousands of businesses."

We're with you. Government estimates say there are around 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Even if only 6 million of them hold jobs, losing these workers would erode the viability of the countless industries that rely on them to fill the least attractive of jobs. Just as onerous, current immigration policy kicks out too many foreigners, in the U.S. on student visas, after they finish their educations. We've met many of these students, and the irony is that most of them hunger to put their science and technology backgrounds to work either launching companies in America or working at one of the country's high-tech companies, from 20-person startups in Silicon Valley to Microsoft. In other words, our economy desperately needs these entrepreneurs, just as it needs day laborers, to stay competitive.

But we'd go farther. Immigration isn't just an economic issue. It's a managerial one, and any plan that suggests the U.S. deport illegal workers violates one of management's cardinal rules: You have to face reality. Forget the notion that illegals will suddenly heed "the law of the land" and pack their bags. With the better life America provides, that ain't happening. Which leaves deportation. But come on, there is no way this country can send millions of people back where they came from. We can't even figure out a way to renew drivers' licenses at the local DMV without making normal citizens feel homicidal. Maybe that's hyperbole, but our point is: The government has a hard time managing logistics now. Add a surge in activity—a massive, challenging one—and the system will blow out.

People have to face reality, too, when it comes to laying blame—and taking responsibility—for the immigration problem. Yes, many immigrants broke the law entering the country. But our borders were obviously not secure enough. So let's just say accountability for the problem can be shared and move on to solutions. Everyone agrees we need to stop the inflow of immigrants with better border control, whether with walls or technology or both, and that we must try to expel all convicted felons. Both should be top priorities. Next, the government needs to design a process that moves law-abiding illegals out of the shadows. We don't know the precise details of such a process. Should illegal immigrants pay a $5,000 fine or a $25,000 one? Should they have to wait three years to become citizens or seven? The answers hardly matter in the long run. What counts, in the immediate term, is that immigrants are registered and paying taxes. Imagine the freedom of movement such a change will unleash in the millions who have been living in fear, and how much easier it will make the widespread teaching of English, the language that makes the fullest expression of U.S. citizenship possible.

Now, we don't intend to oversimplify this. It's not a quick-fix problem, nor is it a new one. Not long ago, we attended a lecture by Sol Gittleman, a professor at Tufts University and a leading expert on U.S. immigration history. He gave a narrative—one that would make most Americans cringe in shame—of how every wave of immigrants to this country since 1620 has tried ardently, sometimes violently, to stop the next. Indeed, according to Gittleman, bitter, class-based opposition to immigration, even when fully legal, is as much a part of American culture as pride in being the world's "melting pot." No wonder immigration is stirring up such a political maelstrom right now.

And yet, like you, we believe the storm can be calmed. Not with rhetoric about principle but with pragmatic managerial action. Millions of immigrants across the economic spectrum keep our country running, and sending them away makes no sense. It's time to face reality—and fix it.

Jack and Suzy Welch await your questions. E-mail them at thewelchway@BusinessWeek.com For their video podcast, go to www.businessweek.com/search/podcasting.htm


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Dear Jack and Suzy WELCH:

You don’t know JACK when it comes to immigration. Your perspective is strictly « business ». In the process you are :

a) repeating the mistakes of 1965 and 1985 ; you expect different results THIS TIME ?

b) perpetuating corruption in Mexico and other places (by providing the escape valve for corrupt governments south of the border)

c) raising a generation of ‘privileged’ immigrant class… a class that has been « forgiven » 7 times since 1985

d) ignoring the reality that businesses wish to reduce their labor costs by bypassing « Americans » and legal residents

e) making a bad bet : the yield of a handful of entrepreneurs and a couple of brilliant scientists is a terrible Return on Investment... among 12-20 million illegals...

f) not asking : what happens to ILLEGALS when they become LEGAL ? they move off the cheap labor jobs and compete up the scale, driving down each level as they move up…. And what happens next ? move Americans and legal immigrants on welfare.... and what next? looking for new places to find cheap labor? where does it end? until all Mexicans are inside the US?

g) blissfully ignoring what else happens to those « hard-working, good-hearted » immigrants when they become legal? they join the « lazy » Americans and finesse the system since they no longer can be deported ; they become again the lazy worker the Mexican manufacturers complain about...... a new "entitlement" class?

h) failing to do DUE DILIGENCE by failing to talk to Mexican business managers and answer their question : who are these hard-working Mexicans ? we need many of those back in our factories…..

i) finally, you are promoting DE FACTO DISCRIMINATION THAT FAVORS MEXICANS/LATINOS ? WHAT HAPPENED to DIVERSITY ? Could it be that Mexicans are cheaper due to their proximity ? what about AFricans and Asians and East Europeans ? they have a much tougher road to the promised land….

As Bush has said : MONEY TRUMPS EVERYTHING… even National Security and National Sovereignty…. Unless you believe that the descendents of the original founders of this nation are culturally and politically suicidal.

Let’s do MEXICO a favor with TOUGH LOVE. Force them to take care of its own people and not use the US like a rich uncle’s fun backyard to play in at will.



R.I.P.

Thanks for the heads up mdillon1172,

I sent them a nice little ditty also. Bunch of bums blowing smoke.

There is a simple answer to what Welch says is a "managerial" issue:
Employ Americans first by advertising for them. When the US unemployment rate is down to 2 percent then you can let in only the most morally desirable visa applicants.

If sending 12 million home is impossible then how is sending 2 million felons home possible?They seem to think 2 million is easy.Lets do that 6 times and there you go!

In addition, unfortunately, many of these people also place more importance on their ethnic identity than they do in being an American Citizen. Therefore, there decesions are based upon what's best for their ethnicity rather than what's best for this country.

That must change.

Of course GE wants illegals here.

Most folks don't have any idea how far reaching a company like GE is. They have bought into every type of business possible. The want cheap labor.

They are even in the Oil Business. Actively exploring for oil.


Their appliance are crap (use to be the best) and last 2 years at the most.

please keep sending them mature but informative letters. They need to hear from us.

Could ILLEGAL alien WORKMANSHIP have ANYTHING to do with the fact that GE appliances are generally INFERIOR?!

let's keep sending Suzy and Jack our considered opinions, but let's stay away from product quality.... they will take your message as not serious...

Jack claims that we don't provide solutions..... he means that we don't provide solutions that addicts of cheap labor won't like...

perhaps the illegal count is up to 30 million ....