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| "Karen, a drug addict, keeping a furtive eye out for detectives, hands a pusher $5 for a bag of heroin" (Life, 1964) Photo by Bill Eppridge |
As Soni reports, when the Indian workers' visas expired, the company continued to pay them--illegally.
In discussion of illegal immigration in the United States, it is common to focus on the undocumented workers and not the employers who pay them and, effectively, encourage them to come.
Why do you think this is the case?
If law enforcement focused on the employers and not the workers, would that be an effective or helpful?
How is this dynamic different from focusing more on drug dealers than on drug users?
Answer this question only after you've read part three, chapter one.
I think that most employers keep illegal immigrants as employees for multiple reasons. They can have poor working conditions that they can not give to U.S workers because the immigrants can not go to the authorities and report them for those said conditions. It is more likely they will get deported then get better working conditions. Foreign workers tend to work harder and more diligently because they do not want to lose a job that they so desperately need. I have seen this first hand in construction when the most skilled workers were undocumented immigrants that worked harder and longer because they had to send money back home to take care of their families. It is hard for companies to find and train new workers and in most cases it is easier to keep existing employees than having a high employee turnover. The undocumented workers get paid less so the employers can save money because the workers don’t have to pay taxes therefore they don’t need as high of pay.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that law enforcement could find more success in deporting like they have with catching drug dealers instead of users. If they focused on employers they would catch more illegals but this success in lowering illegal immigrants numbers had many effects. On one hand illegal foreigners take jobs that can go to U.S citizens, but on the other is reality. Many jobs that illegal workers take are jobs that many Americans do not want and those that do want them want to get paid more than the immigrants. This creates an effect that work done by U.S labor is more expensive while illegal laborers do the same quality of work at a fraction of the price. This reduction of cost increases profit which will draw in more competition which in turn drives cost down making the cost for consumers cheaper.
I believe you are on to something as to why employers choose to keep illegal immigrants around, I would agree that the working conditions are certainly not appropriate and that the average American worker would report these to the proper authorities and that the employer would be fined or punished for such hazards. Immigrants are more careful of how they do their work because as you said if their work lacks what is expected by their employer then they are at risk for deportation. If the law enforcement went after employers like they do drug dealers then it would have an adverse affect on the U.S. economy than the drug ring, while it benefits the U.S. to catch drug dealers and lowers the use of drugs, I feel if they went after employers who hire illegal immigrants then our infrastructure would begin to falter. I think instead their should be a program that all employers of illegal immigrants should be strongly encouraged to join where if illegal immigrants are hired to work a U.S. job then they should be put on a list to quickly gain American citizenship, this program should be at the cost of the employer, this in turn would lead to less illegal immigration, and gain new American citizens at the same time.
DeleteWhen there are enough people desperate to do something that is illegal, there will always be those who take this opportunity to help them for self-gain. Law-enforcement cannot simply focus on holding the companies accountable, as the workers would still have often been abused and will try other avenues, ones that are arguably far riskier and more detrimental to them and the US, such as having to turn to out-right crime if they cannot find work legally. The issue is that our system is over-whelmed and under-planned, and we have not asked the hard questions of how many people we can take, and what do we do with those who come here illegally but do so much good that deporting them would backfire. They need to be given options, and when we reach our limit, they must be provided with options to go to other nations. Companies must be assigned and monitored properly to ensure no abuse or loop-holes are given.
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