I have a cousin who is 100% convinced that illegal immigrants are streaming over the border and trying to steal his $50,000/year job.
I wish that were true.
I wish we had a whole host of Mexicans who were flooding into America with IT, social media, and marketing skills. I wish we had illegal Mexicans who could build boolean search strings and analyze marketing surveys. And I really wish I could find some illegal Mexican coders and developers. That would be awesome.
Unfortunately, I had to tell my family member that his job is in jeopardy because of shady corporate practices and a desire to improve productivity and reduce labor expenses. Hiring and employing someone is risky and expensive. Most companies are in the business of maximizing profits and reducing risk. Labor doesn’t make sense — Mexican or not.
I know a thing or two about this subject. I have been hiring people since 1995. I have hired workers in almost all fifty states and in the global marketplace, too. I have hired many kinds of employees — from factory workers to landscape crews to cafeteria janitors to flight attendants to corporate chumps to executives.
- I’ve never given a job to an illegal immigrant. Period.
- I have never ignored immigration status.
- And I have never opted to hire a cheaper Mexican with sketchy immigration papers over a qualified (& more expensive) white guy who can prove that he is American.
That illegal Mexican who wants your job? He does not exist.
He’s a straw man. A myth. A figment of your imagination.
Now there are illegal Mexican immigrants who are hired to fill jobs in this country. You know what kind of work they do? They harvest grapes. They pick blueberries. They work in the apple orchards of Michigan and the non-union construction sites in St. Louis. They clean office buildings in Seattle and wash windows on commercial real estate properties that are managed by outsourced service providers in Tampa.
From California to Illinois to South Carolina, there are illegal immigrants who clean your homes. They bus your tables. They load trucks at the industrial business park on the other side of your town.
But there is no Mexican trying to steal your 9-5 corporate day job.
And there is no Mexican vying to do your TPS reports.
I can say with 100% certainty that there is no Mexican who hops over the border, braves the desert heat, and wants to do a weekly 1:1 meeting with your boss.
You should be so lucky.
I want you to stop being angry with illegal immigrants. You’re not dumb. You’re not a tool. Start being angry with racist mouthpieces who want you to fear another human being instead of fearing the indentured servitude that is the corporate American workforce.
Stop being afraid. Pay attention to reality. Wake up. And quit blaming illegal immigrants for our crappy economy and stale job market. You look like a fool. I’m embarrassed for you — and so are the Mexicans.
84 comments ...wanna add one?
I agree with Doug. And you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW20EMJr6o4
Thanks!
This. This a thousand times and then a thousand more until people stop thinking that some person barely scraping by, who comes to this country to work is going to get a mid-level accounting position analyzing sales from the East Division and chipping in for crappy Boss’ Day gifts for Lumberg.
Have I told you lately that I think you’re brilliant?
Plus, the kitty picture is hysterical!
Thank you. Loved the kitty pic!
Laurie, I got to tell you this is a homerun out of the park with all bases loaded.
Thanks so much for saying this.
ron
tx ron.
Great message in plain English!
thanks catalina
I was beginning to sweat losing my tenure track position to those illegal Mexican Ph.D.s. Thanks for easing the tension
you should worry!
I miss my illegal immigrant dishwasher at the last 24 hours restaurant I worked at. Dude was 1) hilarious and 2) hands down the best busser/disher I’ve eve had the pleasure of waiting tables with. The 19 year old kid from the burbs who thought he was gangsta that we replaced him with was constantly trying to tell me how to do my job in spite of the fact that he could barely do his (because it was the first job he’d ever had, to be fair, hopefully he got better).
omg i hate that gangsta kid.
I grew up in a border town where there were Mexicans doing exactly what you described. They weren’t stealing our office jobs or even our factory jobs. They were doing the jobs no one else apparently wants to do.
Unfortunately there are a lot of dumb angry tools who will believe what they want to believe because a straw man is easier than facing reality.
hate those tools.
But now we have eVerify to help us protect your cousin’s yob – er, I mean Job.
Baaaahahahahahaha
Sad truth is I have six cousins like this on both sides of my family.
(1) There’s no such thing as an “illegal” person. (2) Sad to say, but there will always be people who find profit in creating scapegoats for our troubles, rather than addressing root causes. Solving real problems is hard, messy work; blaming others is easy and emotionally gratifying.
ILLEGAL PEOPLE EXIST.
Just ask Michele Bachmann.
One year, as part of a college internship in horticulture, I spent about 20 hours a week doing field work alongside Mexican immigrants. Best education I ever got. I worked an hour less a day and a day less a week than they did (they worked 6 9-hour days), I would come home incapacitated, I would lay on the floor, aching, trying to get the dirt out of my ears. I was a young, strong, college-age, well-fed woman, and yet that job almost killed me.
I can’t imagine how bad things would have to get for Americans to take those jobs. I think most people would literally rather starve.
reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1T75jBYeCs
I’m really disappointed there isn’t an illegal immigrant waiting to do my job right now. Can’t I just pretend that someone is going to come in, deal with all this sh*t, and keep my boss calm for the next few months while I’m out? We could call it seasonal. I’d be fine with that.
Another great post Laurie.
i want a mexican to blog for me.
Couldn’t agree more. If your job is in danger from outside workers, its not because illegal aliens from poor uneducated countries are coming in to steal your job. Now it could be because greedy corporations are outsourcing your IT, call center, and various other jobs to other countries… But don’t blame the people who are taking those jobs to put food on their tables and roofs over their heads. Blame your politicians and corporate greed.
my election day experience reminds me that no one cares about the voting process.
Great post Laurie! This type of hysteria has led states like Alabama to pass laws that are pushing legal (and illegal, undocumented or out of status) laborers out of the state. Now there are farmers with no workforce and loads of rotting fruit and veggies.
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/09/alabama_farmers_losing_immigra.html
UGH!
One of the reasons I love my best friend is that she sent me to your site. Perfect post!
thanks laura
I wish everyone who needed to read this would read it and actually hear it.
tx emily
After living and working in SoCal for 15 years and AZ for 8, all I can say to this is “Amen.” The folks most hysterical about this issue have probably never, ever worked or lived alongside those at the center of the issue.
I had a co-worker at JPMorgan Chase corporate offices in Phoenix who ranted and raved about the same thing – “they’re taking this, they’re taking that.” This guy was a data analyst – sat in a cube all day and compared numbers from one crappy corporate financing initiative in 2009 to another crappy corporate financing initiative in 2010. I don’t think there’s a Mexican on Earth who would want that job, phenomenal salary or no.
The folks here without papers are doing what we don’t want to do. And one of these days, I’m going to walk up to the guy on the corner with the “will work for food” sign and tell him there are openings in Modesto and see what he says. I’ll bet it will be something along the lines of, “But I don’t want to do that!” And my response? “Then I guess you really *don’t* want to work for food, do you? Because the other guy/gal? They do. So shut up.”
yeah — mexicans are taking all the profits at JPMorgan/Chase.
RIGHT!
Sad but so true. There are many a business owner that should be replaced by one of the ambitious hoppers. The border hoppers are often much brighter than the business owners. That goes for most corporate managers, including HR managers.
Over a decade ago one of the field managers that worked for me hired a very bright and lovely assistant from Peru. This woman had a Mathematics degree and was working as an order selector in the pick module of our largest distribution center. Our Spanish speaking Industrial Engineering manager (US citizen born in Columbia) developed a spreadsheet model that measured the distances from location to location in the distribution center. He needed someone who could take the locations, run them through the model, validate the results, and then drop the results into a data table. Carlos called me and asked if he could hire this woman off the floor.
I interviewed her and could see that we had a gem. In moving her into the office I challenged Carlos to figure out how to get her more integrated into what we did – work observations, analysis, etc. I did not want to just move her from an then (1990) $12 per hour job to a desk. Mrs. Smith had a brain, and should be paid for her brain. Managers changed, and the new manager got our “Mathmatica” working on deeper and deeper analysis. Mrs. Smith was working at about $16 per hour at her one year mark on the team.
Then one day I got a call from HR. It appeared that Mrs. Smith was not Mrs. Smith. Her papers were not right, her social security number was not valid. HR told me that they had separated Mrs. Smith for lying on her application.
Just a week before I had signed the papers to take her pay to $18 per hour. She had full benefits and had just signed up for the 401K.
Was Mrs. Smith illegal? I will never know. A few months after the even happened I received a letter from Mrs. Smith, asking for a reference, one that was against company policy. Enclosed in that letter was a copy from her immigration attorney, address to my company’s HR department, indicating that his office had made a mistake in obtaining Mrs. Smith’s SS number, backed with a copy of a Social Security card with the correct number – one digit off. Real? I got no way of knowing. But the way that deal was handled by the HR department convinced me that the department was inhabited by Catbert, the evil HR manager.
I gave Mrs. Smith a glowing reference. She could have been ready to step into the manager’s position in another year, doubling her pay. She was fully capable of doing the job.
Far too many people worry about the rice in their bowl, so much that they fail to see the mountains of rice that we have, enough to share with those ambitious enough to go scoop it up. That will not change – it is part of the human condition.
This comment made me sad.
Me, too.
It was a sad event. As much anger I had over the issue, I was a pro. Even as the HR manager chided me for hiring Mrs. Smith and not following procedure of having the background checks done. It took a great deal of effort to not snap the HR manager’s neck when I gently reminded the manager that I did not hire Mrs. Smith, that this HR manager was the one who hired Mrs. Smith as a order selector for the DC.
That manager never really got why I called her Catbert from then on.
These views are my own, although come on; everyone knows it’s the Salvadorans you’ve really got to watch out for.
Seriously, though, thanks for this reminder that the unrest and anger over immigration are coming primarily from those red staters who continually vote for champions of big business, which doesn’t need to steal jobs…they outsource them.
Here in Southern California, where the majority of our population is Hispanic, we’re not afraid of immigrant workers – in fact, they’ve spent decades pushing our local economy forward and infusing countless billions into our collective coffers.
And unless you pick strawberries, what you really should be angry at is your lack of competitive skills and education. Maybe learn Spanish…I hear it’s in demand.
NO. The Guatemalans are tricky.
This is complicated. Because I do believe illegal immigration has an impact on that $50k job. But not for the reasons most people might think.
You rightly say it’s all about spending as little as possible. Cheap labor overseas, illegal labor in the U.S., and the demise of relevant labor unions in the United States have squeezed pricing power out of every non-technical commodity you can buy. If you reduce the number of people who earn middle-class money, you shrink your customer base. When you shrink your customer base, you have to find a way to cut costs. Our production workforce is already set up to barely accomodate just-in-time delivery, so you can’t cut that. So that $50k professional job becomes redundant. Or it’s not redundant, but it’s unaffordable. So some other poor shmo making $50K now has to do two jobs in order to keep the lights on.
So the illegal immigrants picking apples in Michigan haven’t taken your cousin’s job. But the honest workers who used to earn a decent wage legally picking those apples probably bought stuff that enabled your cousin’s $50k job to exist in the first place. I don’t blame immigrants for that. I actually blame Wal Mart. But that’s a longer story.
Jobs are redundant because of unfair global labor practices. I think we agree on that much.
TPS Reports. A lost art indeed.
For real.
Not to mention that there are plenty of immigrants with their papers in order that come pick grapes, clean office buildings and wash your car. Now, every knows (or can at least imagine) the hassle of going through federal agencies to get a temporary work visa. Could you imagine doing that, not for a cushy six figure job overseas, but for a minimum wage job? And living in a tent, car, trailer or bunking with six or seven other dudes in a tiny apartment away from your family?
Lame.
Also:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/coldharted/southpark-they-took-our-jobs-animated-gif.gif
I’m glad I read through Lance – I was going to reference this episode of South Park myself!
“Trrrrr trrrkkk errrrr jrrrrrbbbbsssssss” ~ direct quote.
Brandon, we can now become best friends.
My favorite part is when they ask the mexicans to write an essay. OMG.
As a CA resident, I agree with 99% of what you said and commend you for having the chutspah to go where few want to venture. However, I take exception with your statement that you have never hired an undocumented worker. I know of one personally who hails from Canada, never filed for amnesty in the 80s and has been the DM for a national supermarket chain in the midwest for the past 20 years. Undocumented workers come in all colors, shapes and sizes.
Good point — canadians are WORSE than Mexicans. Just kidding. But there are plenty of illegal immigrants but tonight’s GOP debate will only focus on Mexico.
Yes, those Canadians, absolutely nothing but trouble. It is our area of expertise. Sneaking over that border, a national past time-right after hockey. But we are a fair nation-so we also create awesome products and then sell our start ups to US corporations for millions which creates jobs in the US…oh wait, we seem to be doing that backwards. Drawing board, back to, now.
Seriously – excellent post.
Ha missed Senor Gato, the first time. Priceless!
Its not the mexicans taking the jobs… its the mexican cats masquerading as el salvadorian llamas.
Seriously, all I can do it agree. I hired folks to work in a glass fabrication company where the inside of the building was 100+ degrees during the summer, and 50 degrees, maybe, in the winter.
Many of the people I hired were recent documented immigrants, many with advanced degrees, but they couldn’t get hired into the tech or design industry because they were from South America and not Europe. I gladly paid them $18 an hour to temper glass and run complicated CnC machines. The boys born and raised in that little VA town thought the job was beneath them.
Thank you for your straight talk. It furthers the conversation.
Dang cats!
Another CA resident who is very aware that the produce gets picked because of people who run our southern border.
Since agriculture can’t be outsourced to a low-cost labor market, instead we bring in cheap labor that makes less than minimum wage, is not protected under workers’ compensation laws and receives no health benefits. Is there such a thing as a legal worker who will do these jobs?
All of the people hating on illegal workers need to stop blaming them for the economy and start thanking them that our food is so cheap, and our restaurant bills so (relatively) low…or pony up more for your food and the services typically associated with illegal labor so that these jobs are filled by legal workers – both native and immigrant.
“Since agriculture can’t be outsourced to a low-cost labor market, instead we bring in cheap labor that makes less than minimum wage, is not protected under workers’ compensation laws and receives no health benefits. Is there such a thing as a legal worker who will do these jobs?”
No. Because those are ILLEGAL labor practices. Americans can, will, have, and should fight it. In fact, these practices in the 1920s and 1930s explain most of why there are so many black people in Harlem and Chicago (read up on “The Great Migration”). But yay for cheap strawberries!
I hate how we focus on illegal immigrants but not on illegal labor practices.
Come to Texas, there are Illegals working in many businesses. Assuming you mean: agriculture, construction or maintenance related businesses. But to be honest most Americans would not want the jobs these people do? Ever seen someone pour concrete or roof a house in our 100+ degree summer days. Ever visited a chicken processing plant? Ever mowed lawns all day long for $10 an hour?
There are 11 million illegals in the US surely they aren’t all on vacation? The real question is why haven’t we made Mexico the 51st state?
What we are seeing today is global economy. Corporations will always look to make profits. With competition from other countries and general high labor costs, their strategy is outsourcing. Now there are two issues with this. One is obviously less jobs here in this country. Other is we are losing core knowledge because its no longer held by people in this country but by employees outside this country. We are also not looking to innovate and sell our products to the world. We just need to go back to the core of innovation and create products and sell. More jobs and hence no one complaints about cross border intrusion.
I’ll vote against illegal immigration when Americans will pick my morning strawberries. So far none of the Americans agreed to work 12 hour shifts for $7/hour (if even that), in blazing sun. Open your eyes America, the corporate world is ready to deprive you even more if you keep blaming the strawberry pickers. Give your government away so you can really see what corporate abuse can do.
Everyone try to survive. Put potato on plate for family.
Jobs not stolen but taken away by Amereekan CEO’s who make meelions sending work over seas for cheapor labor, to justify the CEO keeping hees job.
I know after 25 year of korporate work.
there ees a fix to problem.
I like potatoes.
Thank you for this!!!! I actually think we should let them in to work the jobs they want to!!! I worked in hotels in Chicago for years and they were the nicest people, the hardest working, and the ones who kept those hotels humming! It wasn’t the sales people or the general manager than kept the hotels running smoothly, it was the guy polishing the brass on the door when you walked in each day that always had a smile, and was a pleasure to work with that made my day and I know made others day as well. I say let them in, let them work the jobs they want to work, and we will be a much happier and healthier. We can then move on to more pressing issues as well!
I think the “them” could be me, one day. I hope I always have the right to work.
Bien dicho Laurie – Conozco a abogados y doctores de paises latinoamericanos quienes inmigraron al EEUU para mejorar a sus vidas. Trabajan de camareras y en los almacenes. I work in the Latino community where I live to help ensure important community information is accessible to them. As new and first generation immigrants they are much to busy trying to meet their basic needs to worry about starching a shirt for a meeting with your boss. Viva immigration reform.
Love the work you do Karla.
Like DK, I too had a fabulous employee who was hands-down better than most. She was a model dental assistant who never missed a day, was proactive, didn’t complain, knew her patients and did her job with a skip in her step and a smile on her face. After a couple of years, her SSA no-match letter arrived and I was heart broken when she admitted she falsified her I-9 info for the position and she could not provide proof of eligibility to work in the US. It was a sad, sad day and while her replacement fulfills the job requirement, frankly she does not hold a candle to the original team member. I do wish she had gone about the process legally, as she might have been able to join us the right way and may still be employed, today. Excellent post!!
This is sad.
While I really enjoyed this story… @ the same time I found it somewhat disturbing… or more like an insult. I totally see the point you are trying to get across… however @ the same time you are insulting the (me) Mexicans – that we cannot qualify for any job other than grape/crop picker, gardeners, and maids. Etc. … While YES I understand the really hungry ones who come from across the border end up with those jobs.. Not all of us lack the skills or education to take IT, social media, and marketing skills.
I think we agree Mary.
I have to call some of these commenters out on their tone. I hear a lot of people saying the rough equivalent of, “Gee those Mexicans are so hard working!” It feels ethnically essentialist and patronizing in addition to being an unfair slam against Americans.
NOBODY works a crappy job unless it pays more than they could make doing something less crappy. If illegal immigrants had the skills or the legal standing to get that $50K a year job, don’t think they wouldn’t try. In fact, illegal immigrants from rich countries did this quite regularly until the U.S. started cracking down on illegal immigrants.
In that same vein, Americans would do this work if it paid better. Americans DID this work when it paid better. Immigrant workers would also jump ship for a job paying $7.25 / hr instead of the one paying $3 / box of berries. Don’t think they wouldn’t.
I just get annoyed when people suggest that Americans won’t do this work — the subtext being that we are too uppity to do it. The reality is that some labor must compete for jobs, and some jobs must compete for labor. (Alabama and Georgia farmers are learning this the hard way.)
This post was created on the cusp of the GOP debate, the other night. I was anticipating a discussion about hardworking Americans, taxes, border fences, and illegal immigration.
And sure enough, I was not disappointed.
There was a sententious debate about immigration — and in advance of that debate, I wrote this post. It’s about about my cousin, illegal immigration, and his position on Mexicans — and he has a redonk understanding about immigration and the economy that is shared by far too many people.
But honestly, I write an anti-establishment, pro-work HR blog for a 67% American audience. I’ve been doing this since 2004. I write about the struggles of all Americans to keep up with the rising cost of inflation, the lack of fair pay in America, etc.
I’m pretty sure that nearly 100% of my 67% American audience are pro-America and pro-American-worker.
And I know that there are white Americans and legal immigrants who bus tables and clean homes — or would do this work if it paid more — because I’m directly related to them.
Have your cousin read Gabriel Thompson’s Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans. Gabriel spends a year cutting lettuce, working in a chicken plant and delivering take out via bicycle on the busy NYC streets. He discovers mexican immigrants can make more per hour working these jobs than they can back home even if they have a college degree.
I’ve usually read your blogs for some time now and have usually thought here’s a blogger who knows there stuff. However, as one hr person to another, I too have hired people, illegals and legals. In addition, maybe you need to move out of your little NC world to the rest of the nation. Illegals are working all over this country and not just in jobs we “Americans” don’t want to do. How insulting. My husband’s a contractor slowly losing his business here in NY to illegals. Yes, he’s not union, he’s the contractor who fixes houses, remodels kitchens, and builds decks. He’s losing bids all over the state of NY to illegals who don’t pay comp, taxes, licensing fees, nor insurance. That’s how it begins. Americans sit back and believe the bullshit from liberals who tell you you are racist if you against illegal immigration. Slowly they take over the lower paying jobs and then they begin to infiltrate the higher paying jobs, contactors, electricians, plumbers, etc.
I’m so sick and tired of people telling me they are only here to do the jobs Americans don’t want to do. How would you know? Have you talked to all of them? Illegal is illegal. That’s like saying, oh, he stole a can of tomotoes? That’s okay, it’s just a can of tomatoes. This time – next time it will be the can of tomatoes and a can of soda. It’s like a domino effect.
Corporations do share the blame for outsourcing our jobs but at least they are doing in legally! I’m so sick of liberals such as yourself preaching to us about how we should think, act and feel. Wait until your cousin loses his job to one of the children of this illegal. This child will have received free education, free tuition and amnesty all because you think we are redneck racists.
Hey thanks Kate. I’ve never worked as a Human Resources leader in NC. I’ve been here for about three years. My HR experience has me working in metro St. Louis, Chicago, NYC and NY State, NJ, CT, OH, IN, IL, OK, TX, CA, AL, IA, LA (Louisiana, for those who aren’t sure), WA (just Seattle), FL, TN, KY, GA, DE, AZ, CA (northern & southern), England, France, Belgium, Germany, and Singapore. Dang. I feel like I’m forgetting a few places. Oh yeah, Puerto Rico and Canada.
And about two years ago my family had to write letters and plead before a federal judge to keep my other cousin’s husband here in America. She’s American. He is Mexican. They have two kids. I won’t tell their story — it’s not mine to tell — but yes, I know a few things about illegal immigration. My cousin’s husband’s parents brought him over when he was just a young child. He became one of those young kids who are wrapped up in the system, become adults, and are stuck in two worlds.
And funny enough, this particular cousin’s husband was granted amnesty from a federal judge (long story but thank god!) and is now a legal immigrant. We had to work hard to make this happen. My cousin and her husband spent a fortune on legal fees. But we love my cousin’s husband and we were so glad to help him. And guess what? He’s now a Republican. Hilariously ironic — but again, not my story to tell. (Although I saw him at my grandmother’s funeral and he did tell me that Obama wants to put me in a burqa which just goes to show you the breath and depth of Rush Limbaugh’s weird popularity. He makes an impression on former illegal immigrants!)
My husband’s a contractor slowly losing his business here in NY to illegals. Yes, he’s not union, he’s the contractor who fixes houses, remodels kitchens, and builds decks. He’s losing bids all over the state of NY to illegals who don’t pay comp, taxes, licensing fees, nor insurance. That’s how it begins.
I’m sorry to read this. A union would help your husband. But that’s another blog post. He’s losing bids to other non-union contractors. That’s how it begins, yo.
There may not be a Mexican vying to replace your coders, but there probably is some Asian or Indian guy/gal on an H1-Visa who’ll do what you do, for less.
There is a war for talent and a crazy queue for h1b visas so I’m not sure if that’s true. The new less is more.
While I appreciate the pat on the back you probably give yourself for having had an illegal who is now thank god a legal, it does not just change the issue of your blog. You never mention the fact that illegals are taking more than just jobs “Americans” don’t want.
I find it insulting, no matter how many places you have worked, that you feel you can speak for all illegals and all Americans. Telling your cousin he’s a redneck because he doesn’t feel the same elitist mentality as you is all I needed to hear. I never stated I was a republican. I’m an independent who likes to make up her own mind and when I read opinions based on no fact other than they worked in the real “human resources” world, I want to gag.
Why don’t you come back to NY and drive by all the corners where the illegals are hanging out waiting to get work only to send their money back to another country. What are your thoughts on assimilation? Or do you believe, naively, that we can all live our separate lives without assimilation? How’s that working for Arizona?
I imagine Michael Moore will be your next guest blogger since you feel he speaks for all construction workers.
I don’t speak for anyone except myself. And I certainly do feel badly for your husband. A situation like the one that faces your family — and his trade — can make a person bitter.
You forgot to mention the thousands of other jobs that used to pay 50k plus that Mexicans are taking. For example, electricians, plumbers, masons, roofers, painters, and on and on. I was a stone contractor, paid my men over 25 per hour, vacation/holiday pay plus benefits. Mexican labor has reduced my earning potential to zero and I finally closed my doors after decades of business. Think about your short sighted statement of grape pickers and cleaners. What is the unemployment for teenagers or college kids today?
You have no Idea what you are talking about. Just because you may not have done these things, does not make it true for the majority. The mexicans here besides the overwhelming gang assholes. are corrupting our whole system. wake the ffk up dumbazz..