The right-wing argument that citizens are too proud or soft to take certain jobs is too often embraced on the left in a well-meaning but misguided effort to stick up for migrant workers. This myth is insulting to citizens and immigrants alike, and it's hindering immigration reform. I see it parroted on dKos almost daily. Even the New York Times perpetuates this canard in its coverage of crackdowns on employers in Washington State. The "American workers are too spoiled or lazy for some jobs" meme needs to be called by its true name: horseshit.
Don’t get me wrong. I support the friendliest possible immigration policies that will support a reasonable balance between available jobs and available labor, starting with a huge reforming of trade policy. I support requiring all K-12 students to speak Spanish fluently. I celebrate diversity in all forms. I reject mass deportation or the punishing of workers for the greed of employers who don't want to play by the rules. I believe that anyone who relies on a paycheck or who struggles to make payroll is my political and ideological ally, regardless of his or her country of origin.
But supporting corporate reliance upon cheap labor with the insulting argument that citizens are too spoiled or lazy or proud to do some jobs is doing the dirty PR work for exploitative practices.
I fought wildland fire for the Feds. It was the most dangerous, godawful work conceivable. Imagine weeks of 14-hour days, battling a firestorm in 105 degree weather, in full protective gear and carrying a 70-pound pack, cutting line on across steep slopes, breathing burning poison oak and every kind of searing ash, hiding under a reflective sheet like a baked potato while the inferno crowns overhead, sleeping wrapped around a sapling so you don’t slide down the mountain, eating WW2 MRI's, in the company of what is most often a virulently homophobic, racist, chauvinistic crew of military rejects, for 10 bucks an hour.
Yet the Forest Service never has trouble recruiting seasonal firefighters.
Nor do the oil rigs have trouble getting citizen workers. Anyone want to argue that roughnecking isn’t hard, stinking, dangerous work?
The salmon boats and canneries in Alaska for decades offered smelly, backbreaking, miserable summer jobs that they never had trouble filling.
A friend of mine is a septic maintenance worker. He spends most of his days swimming in reeking bogs of poo. He’s happy with his work.
Another friend of mine works for an organic CSA. He spends most of his days bent over, sweating in the brutal summer sun, planting and weeding and harvesting vegetables. He loves his job, and is very proud of what he does. The organization that hired him has a long waiting list for unpaid interns.
Ever seen a community short of an undertaker or gravedigger? I never have.
Why isn’t imported labor necessary to fill these unsavory or difficult positions? Because they pay well enough, or otherwise offer decent enough compensation, to attract citizen labor.
When the military can’t get enough recruits to volunteer to enter the sweltering kiln of senseless death that is the current morass in SouthWest Asia, it sweetens the signing deals until it gets enough takers.
Businesses don’t want to have to pay more. It’s too easy to just break the law and screw letting the "hand of the market" determine the price of labor. In other words, it’s the employers that are spoiled, not citizen workers.
The fact is, there’s not a job on earth Americans (Latino or otherwise) won’t do. If a slaughterhouse or a grower or contractor can’t get citizen workers, then they’re not paying enough for the work they’re asking people to do, or the conditions they expect workers to endure.
Peoples’ willingness to do certain kinds of jobs for certain pay is part of what determines prevailing wage. End-running the domestic labor market by outsourcing, offshoring jobs, or importing desperate labor (legal or otherwise) is a form of cheating-—of trying to get ahead in the market without playing by the rules or making the necessary sacrifices.
Yes, the scene is rough for small businesses competing with mega-corporations, but this must be addressed as its own unique issue.
The plutocracy wants to divide us among white and brown, immigrant and citizen, working class and middle class. They want the cheapest, most exploitable labor possible. If that means firing Mexican immigrants and hiring Chinese immigrants, they'll do it. If it means using child labor in Africa, they'll do it. They'll do whatever they can get away with. They don't care about workers. They want to destroy unions, they want to evade taxes and environmental laws, and they’ll set us against each other to do it. Don’t let them. Support Fair Trade and organized, sustainable labor policies across borders. Support small, organic, and local businesses. Recognize that it’s possible to embrace our brothers and sisters across borders without defending or perpetuating exploitative hiring practices.
Please resist the "Americans are too spoiled for some jobs" bullshit that the right wing feeds us with our Cheerios.
Thank you. That is all.