February 16, 2011--Immigrants
At get-togethers with certain friends, well before dessert arrives, the subject turns to immigrants.
Though most of us have been lifelong liberals, and all of us are just one or two generations removed from being immigrants ourselves, about the current status of immigrants we have deep disagreements. Primarily about illegal immigrants. But, in truth, we all do not feel the same way about those here legally.
As with many others in the U.S., some of these feelings are the result of hard times. When there was fuller employment and our governments were not in deficit, there was the inclination to ignore the "problem" and not be so resentful that immigrants are here allegedly to take advantage of our health care system, avail themselves of undeserved educational opportunities, and of course live on welfare.
Though it is fairly easy to get everyone to agree that most "illegals" were doing jobs that Americans didn't want or even refuse to do--picking fruits and vegetables, cleaning up our dirty dishes in restaurants, and maintaining our lawns and gardens, still some around the dinner table do not like what they see around them. There is the feeling that it is no longer the America they grew up in.
Then, everyone wanted to learn English and become assimilated. Now, they claim, most want to speak Spanish and carry around the Mexican flag.
These dinnertime discussions are more emotional than fact-based. Citing evidence hasn't convinced some that illegal immigrants are not eligible for welfare (or that welfare as we knew it was radically reformed during the Clinton administration), they cannot apply for student loans much less scholarships, and at best can get some basic care via emergency rooms.
Life on $7.00 of $8.00 an hour, even off-the-books, isn't cushy; and there is little evidence anyone can cite that even chronically unemployed citizens are looking to pick lettuce in 110 degree weather or clamoring to scour pots in restaurant basements.
It was thus good to get my hands on some real evidence of how we depend on immigrants to do these jobs as well as help propel us into a very competitive future. I think I'll try some out next time we I get together. They are derived from a essay-review by Andrew Hacker in the most recent issue of The New York Review of Books, "Where Will We Find Jobs?"
First, there is the evidence that without immigrants we would not be able to reproduce ourselves.
Every 100 women need to have a total of 210 children for America to maintain its current population. Doing at least this well is essential to keeping our social safety net in place and to enable us to be economically competitive. We need the workers and we need their taxes. The most recent data show that our national replacement birth rate is 208 children for every 100 women. Below what is required to just stand still. To keep up this means we require a regular flow of new immigrants.
Disaggregated by race, every hundred black women have 211 children, Asian 205, and Hispanics 291. One hundred white women have only 183.
When we look at the labor force, from the 2007 Census Bureau report, The Foreign-Born Labor Force in the United States, we find that non-native workers make up about 16 percent of the total labor force, but they account for 72 percent of California's farm workers, 41 percent of New York's hotel and restaurant staffs (not waiters), and 32 percent of Florida's construction workers. A substantial percentage of these workers are here illegally.
In regard to recent legal immigrants, fully 26 percent of U.S. physicians are foreign-born as are 28 percent of our Ph.Ds. And Asian-Americans 35 to 45-years-old earn 16 percent more than native-born whites. Related to this, 71 percent of Asian-Americans have bachelors degrees or more, while only 37 percent of whites do.
So we not only need our Asian -American MBAs and our Indian-immigrant doctors, but we also need our Chicano strawberry pickers and Guatemalan restaurant workers. Perhaps most important, we need immigrants, yes, illegal as well as legal, to continuously replenish our population. Native-born whites are just not getting that job done.
Though most of us have been lifelong liberals, and all of us are just one or two generations removed from being immigrants ourselves, about the current status of immigrants we have deep disagreements. Primarily about illegal immigrants. But, in truth, we all do not feel the same way about those here legally.
As with many others in the U.S., some of these feelings are the result of hard times. When there was fuller employment and our governments were not in deficit, there was the inclination to ignore the "problem" and not be so resentful that immigrants are here allegedly to take advantage of our health care system, avail themselves of undeserved educational opportunities, and of course live on welfare.
Though it is fairly easy to get everyone to agree that most "illegals" were doing jobs that Americans didn't want or even refuse to do--picking fruits and vegetables, cleaning up our dirty dishes in restaurants, and maintaining our lawns and gardens, still some around the dinner table do not like what they see around them. There is the feeling that it is no longer the America they grew up in.
Then, everyone wanted to learn English and become assimilated. Now, they claim, most want to speak Spanish and carry around the Mexican flag.
These dinnertime discussions are more emotional than fact-based. Citing evidence hasn't convinced some that illegal immigrants are not eligible for welfare (or that welfare as we knew it was radically reformed during the Clinton administration), they cannot apply for student loans much less scholarships, and at best can get some basic care via emergency rooms.
Life on $7.00 of $8.00 an hour, even off-the-books, isn't cushy; and there is little evidence anyone can cite that even chronically unemployed citizens are looking to pick lettuce in 110 degree weather or clamoring to scour pots in restaurant basements.
It was thus good to get my hands on some real evidence of how we depend on immigrants to do these jobs as well as help propel us into a very competitive future. I think I'll try some out next time we I get together. They are derived from a essay-review by Andrew Hacker in the most recent issue of The New York Review of Books, "Where Will We Find Jobs?"
First, there is the evidence that without immigrants we would not be able to reproduce ourselves.
Every 100 women need to have a total of 210 children for America to maintain its current population. Doing at least this well is essential to keeping our social safety net in place and to enable us to be economically competitive. We need the workers and we need their taxes. The most recent data show that our national replacement birth rate is 208 children for every 100 women. Below what is required to just stand still. To keep up this means we require a regular flow of new immigrants.
Disaggregated by race, every hundred black women have 211 children, Asian 205, and Hispanics 291. One hundred white women have only 183.
When we look at the labor force, from the 2007 Census Bureau report, The Foreign-Born Labor Force in the United States, we find that non-native workers make up about 16 percent of the total labor force, but they account for 72 percent of California's farm workers, 41 percent of New York's hotel and restaurant staffs (not waiters), and 32 percent of Florida's construction workers. A substantial percentage of these workers are here illegally.
In regard to recent legal immigrants, fully 26 percent of U.S. physicians are foreign-born as are 28 percent of our Ph.Ds. And Asian-Americans 35 to 45-years-old earn 16 percent more than native-born whites. Related to this, 71 percent of Asian-Americans have bachelors degrees or more, while only 37 percent of whites do.
So we not only need our Asian -American MBAs and our Indian-immigrant doctors, but we also need our Chicano strawberry pickers and Guatemalan restaurant workers. Perhaps most important, we need immigrants, yes, illegal as well as legal, to continuously replenish our population. Native-born whites are just not getting that job done.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:18 AM
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