University of North Texas Students Use Immigration as a Wedge Issue
I am bored with conservative tactics and exasperated with the public's predictable tendency to get sucked in by them time after time. This observation is brought on by an on-campus demonstration at the University of North Texas.
The astute chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) held a "Capture an Illegal Immigrant Day" on campus in January of this year. The exercise involved students (presumably YCT members) posing as illegal immigrants wearing t-shirts that said "Illegal Immigrant" on the front and "Catch me if U can" on the back. To participate in the round-up of human beings, students had to sign up to receive literature and a badge from YCT. In exchange for bringing in the poseurs, the students received a candy bar. Brilliant. Charming. Subtle. Yawn.
Illegal immigration is a classic wedge issue. As such, it separates us (legal citizens) from them (perceived--all brown people aren't here illegally and all white people are not citizens--illegal immigrants). Wedge issues are easy emotional distractions, drawing the focus away from debate about the real causes of, and solutions to, difficult problems facing the nation.
The YCT students blame illegal immigrants for rising unemployment among citizens. The Bureau of Labor statistics reported that the number of unemployed persons for the month of February 2005 was eight million. If we are to entertain the notion that illegal immigrants are responsible for even a small fraction of the US unemployment rate, we have to focus on the kinds of jobs that illegal immigrants are able to obtain: farm workers, pool cleaners, delivery men, gardeners, dishwashers, busboys, domestic workers and some nannies. Lack of these jobs is not driving unemployment. In fact, when was the last time you heard about a riot at an agricultural concern in Central California because Americans couldn't get jobs picking strawberries or grapes? Or forget the riots, that's too dramatic. When was the last time you read an article or a saw a news story about down-and-out Americans who couldn't get jobs as dishwashers because of all the competition from illegal immigrants?
I did, however, read an article in the March 18, 2005 New York Times entitled "Wal-Mart Settles Illegal Immigrant Case". Wal-Mart has paid $11 million to the federal government after allegations that its janitoial contractors routinely hired illegal immigrants to clean 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. The contractors would often make the workers work seven days or nights a week without pay and without compensation for injury. The immigrants were locked in the stores to keep them from escaping. At least 250 immigrants were used in this way. They were from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Mongolia, Brazil and Mexico. With those immigrants out of the way, there are at least 250 slots open for good American citizens, right? Wrong. Because Americans would have to be given some kind of financial compensation for their labor and because they would likely have trouble with being falsely imprisoned in their place of employment for seven days a week, there will only be 25 paying jobs available. Please send your applications to ican'tbelieveyouareblamingimmigrantsandnotwalmartforthisshamefulexploitionoflabor.com.
By contrast, the jobs that skilled American workers are losing are not going to immigrants at all. They are going to people who are well-educated legal citizens of their own countries who can handle a call center or program software at least as well as their American counterparts for about half the cost. Late last year, there was a lot of discussion in the news about companies sending what were once lucrative jobs for Americans overseas to their capable and less-costly counterparts. Those stories faded as companies became more and more very sensitive about the bad press.
In response to the exodus of American jobs, President Bush suggested that Americans needed to be "re-tooled" to be productive in the evolving global economy. The re-tooling would take place through training and continuing education programs for adults. Of course, the federal government has been drained of funds by draconian tax cuts and the prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so don't look for the government to provide any funds for training Americans for the modern economy. I'll bet Merrill Lynch and the rest of the private sector won't be setting up re-training centers either. The Americans that the YCT members are trying to protect are being victimized by policies of a conservative administration that has focused on foreign policy and unnecessary tax cuts to the detriment of the American economy. Lack of vision and commitment, not illegal immigrants, are to blame.
YCT students should be pressuring the President to make good on his stated goals. Why are they wasting time yelping about illegal immigration? If we could snap our fingers and make all of the illegal immigrants disappear at once, not one middle class job that was lost would be replaced. And, until I see some empirical data supporting the assertion that American citizens cannot get lower skilled jobs because illegal immigrants are taking them all, I will not allow obfuscating forces to throw up smokescreens that distract attention from the real causes of real problems that are vexing our nation.
Instead of embarking on witch hunts against illegal immigrants, we should be engaging in hard dialogue about how to position American workers, with their high and expensive standard of living, for success in the emerging global economy. Blaming illegal immigrants for rising U.S. unemployment is an intellectually flaccid cop-out. We should expect better from our students, and we should demand better from our leaders.
The astute chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) held a "Capture an Illegal Immigrant Day" on campus in January of this year. The exercise involved students (presumably YCT members) posing as illegal immigrants wearing t-shirts that said "Illegal Immigrant" on the front and "Catch me if U can" on the back. To participate in the round-up of human beings, students had to sign up to receive literature and a badge from YCT. In exchange for bringing in the poseurs, the students received a candy bar. Brilliant. Charming. Subtle. Yawn.
Illegal immigration is a classic wedge issue. As such, it separates us (legal citizens) from them (perceived--all brown people aren't here illegally and all white people are not citizens--illegal immigrants). Wedge issues are easy emotional distractions, drawing the focus away from debate about the real causes of, and solutions to, difficult problems facing the nation.
The YCT students blame illegal immigrants for rising unemployment among citizens. The Bureau of Labor statistics reported that the number of unemployed persons for the month of February 2005 was eight million. If we are to entertain the notion that illegal immigrants are responsible for even a small fraction of the US unemployment rate, we have to focus on the kinds of jobs that illegal immigrants are able to obtain: farm workers, pool cleaners, delivery men, gardeners, dishwashers, busboys, domestic workers and some nannies. Lack of these jobs is not driving unemployment. In fact, when was the last time you heard about a riot at an agricultural concern in Central California because Americans couldn't get jobs picking strawberries or grapes? Or forget the riots, that's too dramatic. When was the last time you read an article or a saw a news story about down-and-out Americans who couldn't get jobs as dishwashers because of all the competition from illegal immigrants?
I did, however, read an article in the March 18, 2005 New York Times entitled "Wal-Mart Settles Illegal Immigrant Case". Wal-Mart has paid $11 million to the federal government after allegations that its janitoial contractors routinely hired illegal immigrants to clean 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. The contractors would often make the workers work seven days or nights a week without pay and without compensation for injury. The immigrants were locked in the stores to keep them from escaping. At least 250 immigrants were used in this way. They were from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Mongolia, Brazil and Mexico. With those immigrants out of the way, there are at least 250 slots open for good American citizens, right? Wrong. Because Americans would have to be given some kind of financial compensation for their labor and because they would likely have trouble with being falsely imprisoned in their place of employment for seven days a week, there will only be 25 paying jobs available. Please send your applications to ican'tbelieveyouareblamingimmigrantsandnotwalmartforthisshamefulexploitionoflabor.com.
By contrast, the jobs that skilled American workers are losing are not going to immigrants at all. They are going to people who are well-educated legal citizens of their own countries who can handle a call center or program software at least as well as their American counterparts for about half the cost. Late last year, there was a lot of discussion in the news about companies sending what were once lucrative jobs for Americans overseas to their capable and less-costly counterparts. Those stories faded as companies became more and more very sensitive about the bad press.
In response to the exodus of American jobs, President Bush suggested that Americans needed to be "re-tooled" to be productive in the evolving global economy. The re-tooling would take place through training and continuing education programs for adults. Of course, the federal government has been drained of funds by draconian tax cuts and the prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so don't look for the government to provide any funds for training Americans for the modern economy. I'll bet Merrill Lynch and the rest of the private sector won't be setting up re-training centers either. The Americans that the YCT members are trying to protect are being victimized by policies of a conservative administration that has focused on foreign policy and unnecessary tax cuts to the detriment of the American economy. Lack of vision and commitment, not illegal immigrants, are to blame.
YCT students should be pressuring the President to make good on his stated goals. Why are they wasting time yelping about illegal immigration? If we could snap our fingers and make all of the illegal immigrants disappear at once, not one middle class job that was lost would be replaced. And, until I see some empirical data supporting the assertion that American citizens cannot get lower skilled jobs because illegal immigrants are taking them all, I will not allow obfuscating forces to throw up smokescreens that distract attention from the real causes of real problems that are vexing our nation.
Instead of embarking on witch hunts against illegal immigrants, we should be engaging in hard dialogue about how to position American workers, with their high and expensive standard of living, for success in the emerging global economy. Blaming illegal immigrants for rising U.S. unemployment is an intellectually flaccid cop-out. We should expect better from our students, and we should demand better from our leaders.
posted by YG&B | 4:26 PM
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