Do illegal aliens take the jobs that Americans just aren’t willing to do?
Given that there are toughly 15 million illegal aliens in this country currently, it’s amazing that people believe there are upwards of 15 million jobs Americans “just don’t do.” Who knew we were so picky?
It’s generally agricultural jobs in the category of those we “just won’t do,” as if we didn’t have a vibrant agricultural sector prior to the epidemic of illegal immigration. Among the other jobs often cited as those we “just won’t do” include maids, housekeepers, construction workers, and janitors. But is it mostly illegal aliens employed in such jobs?
Here are the figures:
> Maids and housekeepers: 51 percent native-born
> Taxi drivers and chauffeurs: 58 percent native-born
> Butchers and meat processors: 63 percent native-born
> Grounds maintenance workers: 64 percent native-born
> Construction laborers: 66 percent native-born
> Porters, bellhops, and concierges: 72 percent native-born
> Janitors: 73 percent native-born
While illegals are disproportionately employed in the fields listed above, they don’t make up the majority of those employed. In other words – yes Virginia, they’re competing with American labor, and a new poll shows that most Americans acknowledge it.
As Breitbart reported, in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll on immigration, about 51 percent of Americans earning less than $30,000 a year said illegal immigrants do, in fact, crowd out American workers for jobs.
Middle-class likely voters were split equally on the issue. Forty-five percent agreeing that illegal immigrants take U.S. jobs from American workers while the same percentage say they do not take away jobs.
The poll revealed the struggle between the working-class and upper-class on the issue of illegal immigration. For instance, those earning between $100,000 and $200,000 a year were less likely to say illegal immigrants take jobs away from American workers.
Meanwhile, the wealthiest of Americans, those earning more than $200,000 a year, were the least likely to say illegal immigrants take U.S. jobs. Only 34 percent say American workers lose out on jobs taken by the illegal population.
The reason why is quite obvious: the high skilled don’t have to compete with illegal aliens for work. Can you even imagine a neurosurgeon worried about an illegal immigrant taking his job? Not in this universe.
The effect of illegal immigration on the low skilled is two-fold. There’s both job displacement (unemployment arising from illegal immigration), and increased competition for work (driving down wages). It’s primarily those with only a high school diploma (or less) that are harmed the most by illegal immigration. Given that African-American males are the demographic most likely to lack a high school diploma in America, they’re the biggest victims of illegal immigration – though I doubt we’ll ever see that fact championed as a social justice issue.
And those are hardly the only costs…
Securing our borders is something we should’ve already done – centuries ago.
Better late than never.
Source: Allen West
