More than a million immigrants land U.S. jobs (Cross-Post)

More than a million immigrants land U.S. jobs

 - Business - U.S. business - msnbc.com

Please, don't let the headline fool you, and leave you running off to rant about present conditions and how immigrants are to blame for our economic demise.

First off, the article focuses primarily upon legal immigrants to this country; those who have gone through the proper channels and have met all the requirements for entry into the United States, although this expose does touch on undocumented immigrants as well. The present unemployment issue, coupled with the cry for immigration reform from all quarters, is a very contentious subject for us all, and must continue to be carefully and civilly addressed and refined.

So, before we start going off the deep-end here with boisterous, mistrustful and degrading judgments about others, we should focus our attention on a couple of the prime reasons presented here which helps us see why we are in the unemployment mess we are in.

"Employers have chosen to use new immigrants over native-born workers and have continued to displace large numbers of blue-collar workers and young adults without college degrees," said Andrew Sum, the director of the Center for Labor Market Studies.

"’One of the advantages of hiring, particularly young, undocumented immigrants, is the fact that employers do not have to pay health benefits or basic payroll taxes,’ said Sum.”

Now, it certainly must be said that not all U.S. employers are guilty of such practices. However, it has also become clear that, especially in these difficult economic times for everyone, that greed for greater earnings does run rampant all across the business boards. Too often – much too often – the desire to boost bottom-line profits, at the expense of unemployed American citizens, prevails. Layoffs continue, so as to maintain high levels of profitability. Jobs are still being transferred overseas, to cheaper wage markets, in order to protect the bottom-line profit margins. Such decision – especially now – do not lead to a stronger, more productive country.

In this particular period in our nation’s history, it is imperative that we all pull together as a people and find the means and ways of bringing our struggling sisters and brothers back into the full employment workforce. A focus primarily on profit margins will not achieve this needed goal for our nation.

Another very distressing fact that is pointed out is the large number of uneducated, untrained and unskilled Americans there are, who are trying to compete for the few jobs openings that are out there.

“But Ezequiel Arvizu, the compliance and diversity representative with federal contractor Sundt Construction in Arizona, said his company had hired new arrivals over the past three years simply because they often have experience that native-born Americans lack.”

As the present Administration has emphasized over and over again, there is the need to clearly focus on education at all levels, for everyone. This calls for a concerted effort to improve – not defund – our public education system, and to provide the resources necessary to make it possible for our high school grads to continue on to college in order to specialize in fields of knowledge that will again someday produce business and social leaders who are the brightest and the best. Along with this, there also must be an expansion of job training programs – with the resources available to make that happen – that will prepare high school graduates for "immediate" entry into the workforce, if they so choose. Education, and the learned skills that come from such, must become a unified national priority.

Our failure to intellectually and constructively confront both of these crucial issues – corporate employment practices and vastly improved educational opportunities – will only lead us deeper into the recession mess than we currently find ourselves. A breakdown in efforts by all of us to cooperatively succeed together in correcting both of these injustices, will only lead to more finger-pointing and blaming of others for the ills we refuse to address.

Rev. Michael Kirchhoff