Fix immigration by next Thanksgiving
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– Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own. —
The first Thanksgiving festival was celebrated in 1621 in Massachusetts by the Pilgrims, immigrants to America, out of gratitude for a plentiful harvest.
As we sit around our Thanksgiving tables this Thursday, almost all of us immigrants or their descendants, we’re reminded that one of President-elect Obama’s most important challenges will be to mend our broken immigration policy.
Instead of a rational immigration system, we have occasional raids by immigration officers on plants suspected of employing illegals. Then come deportations that may separate an undocumented parent and children whose birth in the United States made them citizens.
The most controversial facet of the immigration challenge is what to do about the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. Most are unlikely to return to their native lands, even in today’s tough economic climate.
Nor would we want them to do so. They work at jobs that few Americans choose to do, both in high-skill area—scientific and medical research, for instance—and in mundane yet essential low-skill jobs, such as gardening, washing cars, and cleaning.
In 2007, Congress did not pass President Bush’s comprehensive immigration proposals, supported by the Democratic leadership and many Republicans. Will Obama succeed where Bush failed?
Obama’s proposal mirrors the bill that failed: increased border protection; more visas for new immigrants; penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers; and eventual citizenship for undocumented workers already here, after payment of a fine. It would be a major improvement.
But with unemployment rising, if Congress won’t pass immigration reform, it could still improve the functioning of American labor markets with narrower action. It could authorize the Department of Labor to decide on its own the number of work permits and temporary visas to be issued each calendar quarter.
Every year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as instructed by law, issues 65,000 H-1b temporary visas for skilled workers. These lucky workers are certified by the Labor Department out of approximately 630,000 approved applications from employers. Immigrants who hold H-1b visas must return to their home countries when their jobs end.
Yet, as the numbers show, most applicants do not get a visa. Many skilled foreign college graduates who have been studying in America, often at American taxpayer expense, are denied access to American jobs. They must leave, taking their intellectual achievements and valuable skills with them.
Foreign workers benefit the American economy. They pay taxes. They keep laboratories and motels, high-tech shows and construction sites, running. They cannot if they are sent away.
For 2009, the H-1b visa cap of 65,000 was reached one week after the start of the application process on April 1, 2008. That represents a tiny part of the U.S. labor force of 154 million. Even if the quota were raised to 150,000, that would be less than one tenth of 1% of the labor force. Such a quota would still deny admission to the vast majority of prospective applicants who don’t apply due to the small likelihood of success.
Whereas Congress is ill-suited to change laws each time the economy goes up or down, the Labor Department has both the expertise to evaluate changing labor markets and the flexibility to adjust visa quotas. Congress should consider letting the Labor Department make quarterly decisions about how many visas to issue.
When unemployment rises, the Department would issue fewer visas; when it goes down, visas could be increased. The Department could manage visas without causing undue burden on U.S. workers or community facilities, such as schools and hospitals.
Allowing the Labor Department to adjust legal immigration every quarter would help America. President-elect Obama could leave behind the rancor and division over immigration that have plagued the Bush administration, and set a new tone for a new year. That would be something to be thankful for next Thanksgiving.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth can be reached at dfr@hudson.org.
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Diana Scheissgoth Roth is absolutely correct. This is a very good plan.
Immigration numbers are highest in our history. We are not an empty country west of the Mississipi any longer. The west has been settled. So don’t act like we are keeping everyone out.
Illegals come at alarming rates. It is bankrupting many states. It is dangerous since the criminals just walk into “Sanctuary Cities”. Crime and murder is up from poverty and lack of jobs.
We are lawless with no borders or rules. There are wars with invading Mexicans yet Bush does nothing. Their leaders want what we have and make no bones that they deserve it. Do they think Iowa and Illinois are their’s from the past too?
Got news for pro-Latino groups. All those border states had a democratic choice to join Mexico if they wanted. The people of those states (Hispanics, American Indians, etc.landowners and residents) chose to join the United State with a Constitution and borders. You can’t go back to that time now.
Immigration reform will only better our Economic woes, Think about this, if only 50 % of the undocumented buy houses, cars, appliances, open bank accounts, pay Taxes, How many TRILLIONS that will bring into the economy?
The only way to go is Immigration Reform.
Even the Republicans learn t their lesson the hear way in this election.
“An analysis by America’s Voice of 21 “battleground” races for House and Senate seats found that pro-immigration-reform candidates beat enforcement-only “hardliners” in 19 of the races. “Americans voters have shown they prefer fair and practical solutions over anti-immigrant rhetoric that sidesteps the real problem,” said Angela Kelley, Director of the Immigration Policy Center”
There are too many American kids out of work already. I say it’s time for a change. Stop letting big business benefit from cheap labor and put Americans back to work. Stop undercutting their ability to make a living wage and we will discover there are NO jobs that Americans just won’t do.
James…
Your ‘let’s do this’ and ‘they should do that’ is typical of people who want to simplify complex issues to 10 words or less. Not realistic or constructive, and as an employer, lets put Americans to work sounds nice, but is not realistic. The jobs immigrant workers do are available to ‘American Kids’ and if they wanted to do the job, the opportunity is there, it just seems to me that quite a few domestic workers are so much more concerned about what their employers are going to do for them. We stand a pretty good chance of becoming an less productive nanny state if we choose pander to workers sense of entitlement. In countries like Canada, and unions talk about peoples ‘right’ to earn a good living, earning a good living is not a right, it is something people should be motivated to do, being driven to success is what has made America great. Looking back it has been immigrants driven to success in a more free economy, than available anywhere else, that has allowed the United States to become the country that it is. I say we need more of that…
Max
A less politised system seems like a very good idea. But, as a Canadian its an interesting dilema. Cuts to the H1B program have been quite benificial to us. For instance, Microsoft recently opened a new facility in Vancouver where our less politised immigration policy allows them recruit sufficient skilled workers. So perhaps the current state of affiars isn’t such a bad thing, for us anyway
It is quite obvious this columnist has no clue about the realities of illegal labor in its depth or breadth. I work in the hospitality industry, which is overrun with illegal immigrants. Even those who truly wish to become citizens, which is small minority of them, falsify their tax information to claim as much as 6 times their rightful tax withholdings, will work undocumented if they find an employer willing to do so, and often send the majority of their pay out of the country to wherever they came from to support their families abroad. These are wonderful people(I truly mean this with my whole heart), but their children bankrupt school systems because the proper amount of taxes are not being paid into the system, they do undercut legal citizens ability to make a liveable wage, and to believe the educated foreigners turned away for their applications to visas is more than one-hundred thousandth of a percent of the immigration issue at hand would be simple denial of the true substance of the issue at hand. As for “jobs Americans won’t do” retoric; that is simply absurd. I know of many many American citizens who were born and raised here who wish their construction job hadn’t just been swept away by an undocumented latino who works for $60 cash per day.
GOP, with its anti-immigrant and anti-Latino stand during last summer’s failed immigration debate, have doomed itself. Being the WASP party in a rapidly diversifying nation means that the GOP will never win another election again. Now, they have to stop listening to racist fear mongerers such as Senator Sessions, Lou Dobbs and other mistakes of nature and support the right thing. Deporting millions is not an alternative. By now, it appears that a comprehensive immigration reform with path to citizenship is a matter of when, not if! I hope it happens within the first 2 years of Obama’s administration.
Why are they here at taxpayer expense to get a degree in the first place. If we have money for education lets use it for US citizens.
She says, “But with unemployment rising…” and moves on to a rather strange conclusion under the circumstances. We are drowning in immigration. Adam seems to make a lot of sense.
Don’t worry about all these details. The last time we had a depression like this one we had WW2 to get out of it. We still have Gates, terrorism and Israel so oil and debt need not be in front of a war with Iran. India should now have enough reason to supply manpower against the terrorists. What a horror! John
Its all about the economy, right? Lets remove all boarders and consider every person in the world an american who just hasn’t moved here yet. Lets make american citizenship or residency the cheapest and easiest in the world to obtain so business can keep wages low and politicians can fall over themselves to pander to their special interests. Whatever keeps the gluttony train rolling is good. When the economy falters, we can go to whatever country has a surplus of people in it and import people from that country so we’ll have more consumers to buy stuff made in china, it’ll be good for the economy. After all there really is no “america” after all, its just a made up thing by those racist, war mongering people all those years ago.
I notice how abusively the United States government treats its own legal citizens in so many areas from trampling the Constitution to starting imperial wars of choice, to offshoring jobs to communist dictatorships to failing to protect public health and safety in food, to allowing companies to default on worker’s pensions and pay exhorbitant salaries to corporate and Wall Street theives.
Immigration is another wedge issue designed to exploit and abuse American citizens by ignoring existing immigration laws and allowing a flood of illegals to undercut American workers, bring down wages, send money out of the country, weaken unions, raise taxes on legal citizens, disrespect basic law and order, bring unvaccinated disease into the nation, and change the language and the culture of the nation.
Why do Americans put up with such abusive treatment from their own government? If Ms. Furchtgott-Roth wants to argue the merits of immigration, her pension should be government pension cut and her job at the Hudson Institute should be put on the chopping block as well. I’m sure we can find an perfectly qualified illegal to do her job at the Hudson Institute for 10% of her wage and with no benefits. Those who argue for immigration and excuse illegal immigration should pay the consequences of their words and lose their jobs to bring them back down to earth where workers and familes live.
legal citizens of a
She says “Yet, as the numbers show, most applicants do not get a visa. Many skilled foreign college graduates who have been studying in America, often at American taxpayer expense, are denied access to American jobs”
This is a bare faced lie. In April, the Department of Homeland Security increased the OPT training portion of the F1 Student Visa from 1 year to 29 months for ‘STEM’, making it roughly equivelent to an H-1b. As a former senior offial at the department of labor, I do NOT give her the ‘benefit of the doubt’ for not knowing that. She also didnt mention 20,000 ‘masters only’ H-1b, the recent increase to 3 years for the TN visa, or the countless L1 visas, all alternatives to the H-1b. She has deliberately misrepresented material that there is no way she would not have known, given her background.
We just forked over a trillion plus, easily approaching 2 trillion and climbing, we are told ‘to help stave off a depression’, yet, she wants to stuff foreign workers into a program proven by Senators Grassley and Durbin, to be full of fraud and abuse. A program that facilitates outsourcing of critical data to cities full of terrorism. Real smart.
from her website “From February 2003 to April 2005 Ms. Furchtgott-Roth was chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor. Previously she served as chief of staff at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. ”
Yeah, how’s that working out? Would you accept economic advice from someone with that background?
Does this economist know that at present there are about 10 million unemployed Americans, many of them who are less educated but quite able to do these low-paying jobs but who are foreced to compete with 7 million illegal aliens in our workforce? How can anyone with any intellect argue that we need MORE foreign workers?
And can we put an end to all this talk about our “brutal” immigration party that is “tearing apart families?” The full responsibility for families being separate lies with the those who deliberately violated our immigration laws and put their family members, including children, in harm’s way. By the way, these families don’t have to remain separated because the deportees are free to leave this country with their children.
Dave Gorak
Executive director
Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration
LaValle, WI
http://www.immigrationreform.org
From the perspective of 50 years in Denver: this sanctuary city is seriously damaged by unfettered access by companies to employ illegal migrants. Employers benefit when they can hire cheap labor which they can intimidate and fire for no more reason than a sullen look. Fifteen percent of the illegals are criminals, running from the law in their homelands. Denver\’s schools are over-run by migrant families who see little value in education and allow their children to drop-out at 16 to join the unskilled labor class. Not long ago McDonald\’s workers represented the Denver population, all of a sudden the workers are ALL Mexican, some not even speaking English. Hospital emergency waiting rooms are filled with migrants seeking cures for minor health problems at public expense. Uncontrolled illegal immigration is devastating this country, especially the west. If you don\’t believe me, look at El Paso…it is now hardly distinguishable from Juarez, Mexico. Even their drug crime bosses seek medical refuge in El Paso. Will the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress have the political backbone to control the border and regulate employer\’s hiring practices? Let me say finally, this situation damages the reputation of the many solid, long-term Colorado Hispanic families by fostering racism. No, I am not a conservative or Republican, I am a Democrat who has a 50 year perspective on Denver.
As a former “illegal alien”: now a proud US Citizen; I find myself in a great heart felt dilemma. With ambivalent emotions and thoughts regarding this immigration issue. In one hand, it really bothers me the terms used to describe the mass of people who (in their majority) come here with the sole desire to improve their quality of life. I guess if you consider that, we are not much of an “alien” after all, but rather have a lot in common with everyone else living here in the US. A better life style. These are not second citizen of the world, there are human beings just like anyone else looking to get ahead: it think that’s the image that the US has cultivated in other countries, the land of opportunity.
But I also sympathize with the people loosing their jobs and currently struggling in this economy and the way the government is treating the immigration issue here in the US. Our immigration policy is weak and flaw. No arguments there. We should have zero tolerance for individuals who come here and commit despicable crimes. If they are caught, they are gone. There is an interesting fact that I have never, never heard in any and I mean ANY news broadcast media mention: TIN: Tax payer’s ID number.
This number is issued by the IRS to “illegal aliens” or undocumented workers; for the sole purpose of filing tax returns. I hear a lot of expenses incurred by “illegals” on our economy and health system. With insinuations of stealing. When we file tax returns, depending on our income we either, pay or get a refund. 90% of us, usually get a refund. These illegals with a TIN number get 0; yes ZERO; although by all calculations they should receive about an average of $3500.00 Dollars. No one mentions this, I wonder way?
Also, no complains about the thousand of US Citizens who have the ability and the “liberty” to look for employment in this land of opportunity but yet decide to abuse and steal from our welfare system by filing fraudulent claims each month.
This thanksgiving I am grateful to live in this country by the sacrifice my mother made 30+ years ago by traveling through Central America, Mexico to get here; risking her life and ours in the process.
I hope that this next administration will be one of CHANGE, but CHANGE not only in policy but in our individual perspectives. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I question if Americans really don’t want to do the jobs that these immigrants perform. But really that is a side issue. The main concern is whether or not we should be support illegal immigration. Nobody would question the importance of immigrants to the workforce – particularly if there is a lack of labor in certain key areas. I am just not certain why we turn a blind eye to illegal immigration. Apart from being fair to those who work legally, I am also concerned by the mistreatment of employees who might have poor communication skills and a low level of education.
I am unemployed because of the H1-B visa program.
This program is hopelessly corrupt and cannot
be reformed. It needs to be abolished.
Yes, immigration levels should be a small percentage of the prior year’s employment growth. Sending jobs offshore would lessen the employment based immigration privilege.
Realistically, immigration levels must be adjusted to reflect the new employment paradigm.
Data:
BLS Employment Growth over NonInstCiv Population Growth by Decade:
1950s
Population Growth = 11,516,000
Employment Growth = 7,215,000 (63%)
1960s
Population Growth = 19,449,000
Employment Growth = 13,862,000 (71%)
1970s (Mexico Depression)
Population Growth = 30,811,000
Employment Growth = 21,224,000 (69%)
1980s
Population Growth = 20,865,000
Employment Growth = 17,685,000 (85%)
1990s
Population Growth = 21,667,000
Employment Growth = 16,998,000 (78%)
2000s
Population Growth = 24,795,000
Employment Growth = 11,953,000 (48%)
We can see that in the decade of the 2000′s, employment growth has fallen by 5 million jobs and population growth is 3 million higher than the 1990′s.
These are June 2008 unadjusted population and employment levels.
The fact that someone like this was the chief economist at the DoL is truly scare.
First of all Ms. F-G undercounts the number of visas. Each year the government gives over 100,000 H-1B visas.
Next, the visas do not go to worker in the general employment pool (the 1% F-G claims) but rather the much smaller pool of specialty occupations. About half the H-1B visas go to the even smaller pool of compute occupations.
Already the U.S. gives more H-1B visas for engineers than it creates engineering jobs.
Look at the economies in your border states, they are overloaded with both illigals and the drain they cause on our system. California where I live in ready to file bankrupty. The hospitals and schools and jails are full of illegals at the taxpayers expense. The TERMINATOR is trying to raise Californians taxes to cover these expenses while citizens in construction and other simililar fields are losing their jobs to cheap illegal labor. You cant tell me that a man or woman watching their family go hungry and homeless will not do these more MENIAL, UNWANTED JOBS to keep his or her family in their home. Bleeding hearts like the one who wrote this article should stop pushing their FALSE bleeding heart agendas and think about taking care of their own. There is no reason those south of the border should come up here for work, a lot of our business is now in their homeland. What they should do is stay in their own country and fight for reform to push out the corrupt officials and make THEIR HOMELAND a better place.
IMHO, the immigration issue can only be fixed by resolving the home country issues that lead to immigration. The idea that the US can resolve this by legislative or judicial fiat is ridiculous.
A good analogy is osmosis across a permeable barrier. One can pass whatever law one wants, but as long as there is pressure on one side, migration across the barrier occurs. Following through on the analogy, to stop the migration, one must decrease the pressure on one side, or decrease the size of the pore.
From experience with our southern border, we know that no matter what we do, the size of the pore remains the same, and may have gotten larger for all of our efforts. So that only leaves decreasing the pressure difference.
To me this indicates that the proper avenue to address this problem is to increase the living standard of the prospective immigrant in his/her home country so that the impetus to immigrate isn’t there. That, folks, may be a problem that the US can do little about as it relates to the political and socio-economic systems and realities there, helped or hindered by US foreign policy doctrine.
Adam is right on the money. The ability of businesses to employ illegals for cash has to somehow be stopped. Those workers are completely off the radar, provide no direct benefit to the US tax base, and – along with any dependents present – are a financial strain to our health care facilities and public school systems. Except for subsistence, most of their money will go back to relatives in their home country.
While it is unfortunate that a majority of illegals are only trying to make a living – they have knowingly violated the law and should NOT BE GIVEN CONSIDERATION for permanent residence or citizenship simply because there is a LONG LINE of people who are already waiting for adjudication. Those people have followed the letter of the law, filled out the forms, in some cases – paid for professional assistance to handle their requests…..so you are going to look at them and say “well, we have a huge illegal immigrant problem and we’ll fix it by granting status/citizenship to that group while you folks will just have to wait longer until your paperwork clears”. That is clearly rewarding bad behavior!!
Cheap Labor is never good for an economy, unless you like an economy without upward mobility and a whole lot of poor people in it.
This looks more like the Dark Age that falls between two Empires. Got Serfs?
The argument presented here argues that immigration has only 1 goal: to benefit employers by keeping labor costs down, and therefore by induction, benefitting the economy as a corollary.
No other country in the world practices an immigration policy like this.
This is why we need change. It’s absolutely immoral to purely benefit employers at the expense of workers and labor.
Thank you Mr.Bush! Immigration what a joke no more student visa for one. and with a cost more then a Us passport and a 12 week wait just to walk in the US Embassy office and ask for one to be told no is what happend to my friend and I a US Citizen went with him to the US Embassy to ask to sponsor his visitors visa and we both where treated like dirt! It made me ashamed to be a american!
I thought the first Thanksgiving was because the native indians saved the early settlers from famine and starvation, not because of a plentiful harvest.
“Immigration reform will only better our Economic woes, Think about this, if only 50 % of the undocumented buy houses, cars, appliances, open bank accounts, pay Taxes, How many TRILLIONS that will bring into the economy?”
I agree with this comment 100%, the boost to the economy will be enormous. You are forgetting the $1000 or more they will have to pay as a fine for being here illegally.
Give them the driver\’s license and think how many will purchase cars. This is better that a bailout for the auto makers.
THE AMERICAN OUTRAGE!
If you want to see how far the “immigrants” have reached into our society, just look at all the organization that have been invented to help the poor “immigrant” while ignoring America’s resident poor. Even the veterans have been betrayed by these collaborators who look after their own.
Since when has the majority of the poor become Hispanic/Latino/Mexican or any of the other phrases designed with the sole purpose of creating another catagory to feed.
Let the fact show that Mexico has a population that is less than 2% of the population of the World, that if you took all of what is considered Latin America, it still wouldn’t amount to more than 8% of the World population. These are UN statistics.
Yet , the longer we allow these people to cross our borders, the more corrupt and evil our own society becomes. Mexico has admitted that they can no longer control the drug gangs in their country and these people use our borders as a revolving door.
Our economy is in serious trouble due to all the resources that leave our country undercover of “money sent home” by “poor hard working immigrants”. Billions and billions of dollars that could have proped up this sagging economy are missing. Gone south of the border.
The only solution is to cut off all aid to the countries where these “immigrants” are from and hold those countries responsible for their own people’s action when on this side of the border.
Next, remove all funding of “immigrant” groups and their collaborators on this side of the border.
I was shocked to learn how much help our own religious organizations give these infiltrators. A 2008 Annual Report of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development showed tens of thousands of dollars being funneled to organizations that help only Latino immigrants. I checked further on the earlier years of this report to discover that this practice has been going on for years. As if no American poor existed.
One of those organization boasted on how they managed to raise the $7/ hour rate for day labor to $13/ hour. This is no longer cheap labor as immigrant groups always wave under the nose of businesses.
Charity begins at home! I propose that our US government start showing loyalty to those families who fought for this country. That American families of veterans come first. That “FEED AMERICANS FIRST” be a pledge that the US show it’s citizens before one dollar is spent on foreigners.
Correction for story: The American Outrage
I was shocked to learn how much help our own religious organizations give these infiltrators. A 2008 Annual Report of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development showed ((hundreds)) of thousands of dollars being funneled to organizations that help only Latino immigrants. I checked further on the earlier years of this report to discover that this practice has been going on for years. As if no American poor existed.
immigrant workers, especially mexican ones, lower the bar, they work longer and harder for less, they are akin to wal-mart for small business’s. why hire an American when you can hire 5 Mexicans who will work twice as hard because their economy is worse. I am a reasonable accepting person who holds no prejudice, this is simply how it is.
in the case of Mexico, they are one of the poorest countries in the world. right next door to the richest. if you have ever crossed the border you know that it goes from rosy American houses and well paved streets to complete desolation and poverty, within 100ft.
if we only give them the incentive to come here and solve their problems, Mexico will not only remain poverty stricken, but will loose more and more of it’s population and flood our country with desperate and uneducated people, some of whom can’t or even refuse to learn english.
i say bolster the borders.
this is not 1880, we are full and our cities are rife with gangs and poverty. there aren’t enough jobs right now, and to change immigrant law according to unemployment rates is quite frankly absurd, it would be like a sick game of red light green light.
so for now, keep the red light on.
as a side note, the “jobs nobody wants to do” comment is insulting to people who do these jobs, some people don’t want the crazy go go lifestyle and only want to work out a modest living and be free.
Fix immigration means “reward the criminals”
Maria Hernandez lives in Mexico City and has petitioned the U.S. for legal immigration. She has a degree in chemistry and has advanced science as well as saved a considerable amount of peso’s. Her application has been declined over and over.
Ester Martinez lives in Santa Ana, CA. She has entered the U.S. illegally and has had a baby here although she could not pay the hospital. Her employer pays her cash and she pays no income tax. She did not finish high school and has had no academic achievements.
“Fixing immigration” means Ester gets to stay and Maria can just try again.
What is wrong with this picture?
The problem with Diana Furchtgott-Roth’s proposal is that, as a “former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor,” the DOL would be based their decision from the “globalist ivory tower’ that utterly disregards the impact of H-1b on U.S. workers.
First Diana slimes the stats to make it appear that the H-1b impact is statistically insignificant. The “tech sector” impacted by H-1b is comprised of only about 3,600,000 workers. Over the past 6 years over 600,000 H-1b workers have flooded into this sector, displacing hundreds of thousands qualified American tech workers out of their professions. The largest users of H-1b are Indian consulting firms that, by bringing in H-1b labor at 25% below market wages, are able under-big U.S. consulting firms for public and private sector contracts.
Why does Diana not address this? By reforming the H-1b program to only be used in cases when “no qualified Americans are available,” the 65,000 cap would never be reached, and her arguments would be moot.
The testimonials at http://www.HireAmericansFirst.org support this harm by H-1b.
Given the massive tech and financial (that employ IT workers) over this year, the only quota that makes any sense in SUSPEND THE H-1B PROGRAM until the economy and job market recover.
As president of the Programmers Guild I challenge Diana to a debate on this issue. Meanwhile get the facts at our website.
The U.S. has over 300 million people. The cities and roads are packed. Housing is still so expensive that I can’t own one where I grew up in California. Unemployment is far greater than the government admits to.
The REAL reason certain elements clamor for more foreign workers is to suppress wages and enhance corporate profits.
Unless one is part of the wealthy 2%, I can’t see this strategy as beneficial.
Consider the world as a whole. Voluntary and involuntary slavery co-exist as long as human exist. Mercy is the hope to ease the pain. There is no cure but applying the pain-killer.
Its time for us as a nation to get real about immigration:
1) Under the present rules, Big Business is the primary beneficiary. The american taxpayer, as usual, foots the bill.
2 The people that qualify under the H1-B visa can’t realistically be compared to the total workforce of 154 million. The H-1b applicants are competing for jobs from the much smaller skilled worker pool.
3. Perhaps its also time to rethink the foreign student program. Most universities regard them as a source of revenue. How about giving more US students a chance? There is a much better chance they will remain in the US.
MYTH: America has “uncontrolled” and “unprecedented” immigration.
While the immigrant population is the highest it’s ever been in absolute numbers, it isn’t so when compared to the equally increasing total U.S. population. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the percentage of immigrants has fluctuated within 5-15% of the U.S. population. As of 2006, immigrants are 12% of the U.S. population. (U.S. Census Bureau, “Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990.” February 1999, and Pew Hispanic Center, “A Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population at Mid-Decade.” October 2006)
I have to laugh when I see people defend our poor teenagers without jobs. The reality is, we have raised a generation without work ethics that thinks service with a smile should come with a 401K and a company car.
We need immigration reform. As a conservative, I was proud to see most conservatives voted with me in nominating John McCain and rejecting other hostile candidates. Sadly, once red states turned blue – coincidentally where the immigration rhetoric and raids have been most bitter: Virginia and Iowa, to name a couple.
There are no high skilled jobs that American workers choose not to do and the claim there is is a cruel joke made by someone who never got laid off their high tech job so they could be replaced by a guestworker, as nearly a million Americans have already.
The purported excess of H1B applications is the result of using a lottery to determine who gets approved, and would disappear if they used an auction instead of a lottery so people could no longer game the system by submitting multiple applications.
The author is incorrect that H1Bs must return home. The H1B is a dual intent visa and most apply for green cards, which is one reason so many want to come. If she gets such an obvious fact wrong, the rest of her claims are rendered suspect. Those who stay just add to the growing numbers of workers chasing fewer and fewer good jobs and lower wages for all (except the corporate execs who get huge bonuses for replacing Americans with cheaper foreign labor).
Why is the author trying to bring more cheap labor into this country at a time when huge numbers of Americans are newly unemployed, adding to those of us who already got displaced by guestworkers earlier?
the biggest problem with immigration is it does increase the us population faster then the economy. if they employers need labor the welfare and unimployment systems need to be exhousted before imigrant labor. also wages must support “cost of living”. massive profits wont be possible in a workable system.
You seldom hear about the true cost of illegal immigration: health care, education, crime and other public good programs and services. The true cost is staggering and growing. It’s also unfair to deny legal applicants a fair path in (assuming you legalize the illegals). Their are political (vote) considerations, but that doesn’t address the true needs of US citizens.
Ah, the immigration is good, more immigration is better nostrum. The Census Bureau projects ONE BILLION people here if immigration continues as is. Maybe readers can explain how America will become sustainable in the face of such unsustainable growth.
Too many people think with their hearts instead of their brains. Again, one billion people…
http://www.census.gov/population/project ions/nation/summary/np-t1.txt
In the last year we’ve lost over 1 million jobs. Real weekly wages have declined -3.8%. (See: http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOu tputServlet?&series_id=CEU0500000031 ) We have 90 million working age Americans who are not employed.
(See: http://www.bls.gov/web/cpseea1.pdf )
Yes, siree. We sure do need to increase the labor supply even further. Maybe we could get real wages down another -5% if we swell the labor supply enough with cheaper foreign workers.
Illegal, or unlawful, is used to describe something that is prohibited or not authorized by law or, more generally, by rules specific to a particular situation
The hidden cost of immigration is hyper-inflation in the housing market through sheer demand while wage go flat.
Home equity appreciation is an often used, politically correct term, but in reality, home equity appreciation has become hyper-inflation. Housing costs have inflated 309% in 27 years, while four-fifths of America’s wage-earners (80%) have averaged (after tax) income increases of only 18.25% in 24 years.
Percent Change in House Prices Period Ended June 30, 2007 (United States)
5 year = 50.76%
Since 1980 = 309.4%
http://www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/2q07hpi.p df
Wage Data: http://www.cbpp.org/1-23-07inc.htm
In our flat employment market, each immigrant represents a potential housing foreclosure due to the displacement factor — most immigrants must work below market wage to become employed — thus, economically expelling an established wage-earner.
High foreclosure filing(s) by U.S. States are closely correlated to high legal immigration destination States.
Housing foreclosures & Immigration
http://immigration-weaver.blogspot.com/2 008/07/housing-foreclosures-immigration. html
The solution is to remove the dual-intent provisions of guest-worker visas and require the employer to pay a fair market housing Per-Diem.
The housing Per-Diem allows the non-immigrant to maintain a foreign residence, stimulates U.S. local service economies and levels the playing feild with American workers.
A successful retirement is dependent upon a a mortgage that is paid-off as earning power dwindles.
The immigration-boom will dwarf the baby-boom.
I work for a large US corporation and I’m about to lose my job due to the weak economy.
I can tell you categorically that the numbers are well in excess of 65,000 H1-B visas. These visas are issued for 3 years and can be renewed for another 3. The renewals have no upper limits.
Also, the company I work for uses L1B visas and they bring workers over from India all the time. There is absolutely no problem in them bringing workers in from India. In fact about 80% of the people I work with are from India.
It is absolutely an outrage. This is one of the reasons that the US economy is in the toilet. How can Americans buy things if we don’t have jobs. A strong middle class is vital to the economy.
US companies have become too reliant on H1B visas, L1B visas and hiring illegal immigrants. It makes them lazy. They don’t think how they can come up with new and improved products and services, instead they are constantly looking for ways to lower wages for America’s workers. Well, it will lead to even greater economic disaster than we already have. The US middle class is being slowly destroyed.
First of all, the writer is off on a few points. She asserts that the Government should “fix” immigration by next Thanksgiving. It’s already being fixed. Thanks to Director Chertoff and ICE, illegal aliens are being deported and many are fleeing to their home countries. And due to tough state laws many are fleeing Tenn., Okla, and many other states. Remittenses have been cut in half, as well as the number of aliens snesking in. Just let the laws be enforced and within five years we’ll have very few illegals living in the United States.
Second, about the so-called separation of families it is SOP that when an illegal is deported that ICE request that they take their minor children with them. Most of the time they chose to leave the child with a relative in the US rather than back to their home country. So if families are separated it is at the insistance of the aliens. The reason they chose this option is so that the child could recieve benifits from the welfare system. One way to fix this problem would be to do away with Birthright citizenship for illegal aliens.
The author also states: “. Most are unlikely to return to their native lands, even in today’s tough economic climate. Nor would we want them to do so.”
No YOU don’t want them to. Please be careful in your wording. She also claims that many illegals are working in scientific and medical research. In what aspect of medical research are they employed? As gueana pigs? Again she doesn’t elaberate so I’ll assume she’s simply not telling the truth here.
She claims that so many immigrant students who enroll in college at taxpayer expense are denied employment. First of all, student visas are only that – STUDENT visas. It was never established that upon graduation from college that those visas would automatically convert into work visas. The system was designed to allow a student to study in the US and then return to their home countries for work. As if she didn’t know. Another cleverly crafted deception.
The author does make a point that i agree with. The issuance of visas should corrolate with market trends and the demand for labor. Currently it does not. 2 million immigrants come to our country every year regardless of economic conditions. However I believe the answer is to allow no more than a total of 300,000 immigrants per year and secure the borders against illegal immigration. No “comprehensive” solution is necassary.
In many cases, American jobs are lost because corporations migrate their manufacturing operations to countries that offer more competitive labor costs and less regulations. Expelling inmigrants may push companies to look outside leaving less jobs.
In the US, it takes the creation of 100-130K new jobs created per month just to absorb new graduates into the workforce. During the past 8 years, the current US president and the US Labor Secretary have rarely met that target. People who have stopped receiving unemployment insurance are not counted in the current unemployment figure, which is an outrage. It takes Uncle Sam about 3 days to calculate your witholding payroll tax when you become employed. That’s the same time it takes to calculate when your witholding payroll tax drops to zero or barely budges.
As always, the immigration debate brings out the best in people. It is very tempting to take an opportunity to look for a solution, as this article demands, and simply use it as fodder for xenophobic vitriol. The majority of these comments are biased against any solution to the immigration problem that attempts to recognize the humanity of the people living and working in the country illegally. Of course the counter arguments to this usually hide behind a guise of patriotism and good citizenry. The grammar is also terrible.