Thread: Letter: Immigration is cause of insufficient job creation

Letter: Immigration is cause of insufficient job creation
sctimes.com
Opinion
Written by
Larry Schreiber
Sauk Rapids
12:05 AM, Sep. 25, 2011

There are not enough jobs being created. The U.S. is losing its competitive edge in the world. The principal culprit in each of these issues is unfettered immigration. We are bringing in about 1 million legal immigrants each year. Who knows how many illegal immigrants are coming? But it’s likely at least 1 million a year.

Most of these new arrivals come without jobs or skills, and with cultural assimilation issues. It takes tons of money to subsidize housing, provide food stuffs, education, medical and on and on for these new arrivals because they come without jobs or personal wealth.

The hard fact is we cannot afford our current immigration policies or our failure to enforce current immigration laws.

We need to adopt a zero immigration policy, enforce immigration laws, and construct fences and a several-miles-wide dead zone along our border with Mexico.

The definition of “citizenâ€

Normally----ever since the Industrial Revolution---we should be losing jobs due to the introduction of labor saving devices. That makes it a scramble for ordinary workers to keep abreast of the changes and adapt when necessary.

But with the introduction of hordes of low skilled foreign laborers---and the burgeoning advocacy organizations helping them--it is even more complicated. Far more complicated. The technologically displaced US worker has to retrain---but also must contend with new, imported, competition. And he cannot fall back on temporary lower skilled employment.

In my field, IT, millions of foreign workers have been imported over the last decade specifically to take IT jobs here. Guess what happened to the employment, salary levels, and career trajectories of Americans like me who invested in ongoing certifications and degrees in supposedly "hot" fields?

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

In my field, IT, millions of foreign workers have been imported over the last decade specifically to take IT jobs here. Guess what happened to the employment, salary levels, and career trajectories of Americans like me who invested in ongoing certifications and degrees in supposedly "hot" fields?

Let me guess Betsy....you were screwed with no place to go but down???

Yep, it's a salary roller coaster. Up and down and down and up and down and down. Even the "hot" skills might get you a temp contractor job where you are monitored like a machine and paid squat. Or not even that. Everywhere I go I run into ex-IT professionals. A guy working in a bicycle shop. The guy who measured my son for his graduation suit. A gal at a beading craft fair. .....

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

Yep, it's a salary roller coaster. Up and down and down and up and down and down. Even the "hot" skills might get you a temp contractor job where you are monitored like a machine and paid squat. Or not even that. Everywhere I go I run into ex-IT professionals. A guy working in a bicycle shop. The guy who measured my son for his graduation suit. A gal at a beading craft fair. .....

Nancy, I see lots of IT folks looking for a job. For that matter I see LOTS of ALL folks looking for a job.