One of the talking points of those opposed to a path for legalization of the millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is that these immigrants take jobs from American citizens. The undocumented population is often a convenient scapegoat, and many claim that their presence here is contributing to unemployment.
Anecdotally, I know this claim is incorrect. Off the top of my head, I can think of three people I know who are small business owners while also having undocumented status. And guess what - they employ others! On the flip side, I can think of more than three American citizens who are able-bodied, yet who do not have the motivation to work, much less start their own business.
I have found that the undocumented population, with their entrepreneurial spirit, actually revitalize our communities, many of which would otherwise lose population and see an increasing number of businesses shuttered.
Last year, the United Farmworkers' Union ran a clever campaign called "Take Our Jobs." Fans of The Colbert Report may recall Stephen Colbert featuring this initiative on his show. Stating that they are ready to help the unemployed and welcome citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field, the UFW explained:
There are two issues facing our nation--high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce--that many Americans believe are related.
Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat - at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) - comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers.
Agriculture in the United States is dependent on an immigrant workforce. Three-quarters of all crop workers working in American agriculture were born outside the United States. According to government statistics, since the late 1990s, at least 50% of the crop workers have not been authorized to work legally in the United States.
A UFW organizer later reported, “Americans don’t want to work in the fields because conditions are horrid,” and he indicated that a mere three applicants out of the 9,000 who initially inquired actually ended up working in the fields.
The undocumented population is not only saving our agricultural economy, but many are also business owners with hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits each year and dozens of employees. A CNN Money article from 2005 features "Jose," a Honduran man who now owns a garment business that paid six figures in taxes in 2004:
One of 11 children in a family so poor that he did not own shoes until he was 12, José couldn't find work in Honduras, so at 18, he illegally worked his way west and north into El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. He took jobs at banana, mango, and sugar-cane plantations. One night, a year after he left Honduras, he sneaked into California near San Diego and traveled north by foot and bus. He knew no one in the U.S. and spoke no English. Sleeping on the streets of East Los Angeles, he waited each day with other immigrants at busy intersections to get construction and painting jobs, for which he was paid in cash. He sent much of his earnings to Honduras to buy his parents a house and to help his older brother join him in the U.S. "The jobs that paid $400 here would have paid $50 in Honduras," José recalls.
Jose eventually established his own garmentmaking company here, even while building 8 homes, an apartment building, and a store for his family back in Honduras (holy cow!):
To avoid any missteps that might derail their dream of becoming naturalized citizens, José and Maria [Jose's wife] have paid state and federal taxes each quarter. They use a federal-tax ID number that the government assigned the business, which they have incorporated in their names. They have obtained all necessary licenses. They contribute payroll taxes for their employees—even the third of them who are are illegal and use fake Social Security numbers bought on the street. The undocumented employees probably will never be able to reap government retirement benefits that they would accumulate if they were citizens. However, accepting the workers' phony Social Security numbers allows the factory to win jobs from large companies that require suppliers to show that all of their employees have this government identification.
With their company on track for about $1.2 million in sales for 2005, Maria and José are charging ahead and trying to ignore the legal cloud that hangs over them. They are considering the purchase of the building that houses the factory, which would allow them to generate rental income from other tenants. Though he is concerned that overseas competitors could hinder his company's growth, José says he is committed to staying in the U.S. He is optimistic that his company will qualify as having $1 million in profits over the next three or four years, which will allow him to reapply for a green card.
A study was recently released that indicated that white people see racism as a zero-sum game. The results showed that whites felt that opportunities for black people have increased and that racism has decreased. But at the same time, whites reported they felt these advances were at their own expense, and that discrimination against white people has increased, i.e. "reverse racism."
The results of this study were intriguing to me because I see similarities with many Americans' views on immigration: resources are limited, so immigrants who come here out of economic desperation to work are stealing jobs from deserving Americans. Any upward mobility and a shot at the American dream is seen as a taking a piece of the limited pie from "real" Americans.
I find this view to be misguided, ignorant, and often a result of racial and ethnic bias. We should be welcoming those like Jose who want to keep their profitable factories here, rather than maximize and exploit what they can overseas. But instead, we're scapegoating some of the most entrepreneurial and hardworking people in the world, all to defend a "rule of law" that is actually a woefully outdated, arbitrary, and broken system. Economic opportunity is not a zero-sum game, so we should be thankful that resourceful, job-creating people want to come and invest in our country.
Comments