Migrant Workers: Immigrant Workers

America needs comprehensive health care reform, and immigrants should be a part of the movement.  But many American citizens might ask that pertinent question: why should they cover the expense for illegal immigrants to access health care?  The answer is plain and simple: until congress passes immigration laws that work, people are going to migrant here illegally.  And to deny migrants access to affordable health care, Americans are not only denying them their human right, they are also putting individual and national health at risk.  I believe that this country – which has the medical advancements and the facilities to ensure the health of its citizens – should reach out to its non-citizens, legal and illegal, until it

Employment of illegal immigrants in the United States, as well as other countries has been a highly controversial subject for many years now. There are many people living in various countries around the world that are unhappy with the way they are living, and want something more out of life than what their country can offer. Due to their unhappiness, they decide to immigrate to another country, and this is usually done illegally. Once they are in their preferred country, which a lot of the time is the United States, they are forced to work in low skilled jobs because higher skilled jobs require people to speak fluent English and show proof of residency. Although many people view illegal migrants as a

They come to America in search of a better life and are not given the necessary tools to do so. For example, working in a family shelter many of my clients are immigrants. I have a particular family of seven who are all undocumented immigrants. They have done everything they needed to in order to try and get their residency. However, when they call their legal aid to follow up they are told the judge has not seen their application. The family feels hopeless they do not qualify for public assistance, they cannot get any assistance from the government and as their family worker there is nothing that I can do to alleviate the situation. Immigrants are marginalized and discriminated against. Often times I hear my colleagues saying that undocumented families want to come to the United States to have multiple children and leech off the system. Many fail to understand that families migrate to the United States to run away from issues of oppression and lack of resources in their own country and want to make a better life for themselves and their children. They are willing to take jobs that Americans would refuse to work and work hours that Americans would be opposed to working. The misconception that they are

The United States was built upon the concept of people immigrating here for a better life. Is the current stigma on undocumented workers coming to America for work, hypocritical for what the United States was built upon? Articles debate if undocumented workers profit America, or if they hurt the economy. The articles uses economist with contrasting opinions, as though they base their judgement from particular facts. Undocumented workers are a plus to the economy rather than a negative, when the facts are shown, they’re more pro reasonings than cons.

Why should America punish immigrants when they are helping the economy? William J Clinton once said, “we must say no to illegal immigration so we can continue to say yes to legal immigration.”(Johnson 1). The American dream should stop being just a dream. It shouldn’t be limited to only a few people. Immigrants shouldn’t have a rougher time coming to America, but handed opportunities that everyone else is offered.

I agree with your consequences of economic well being and how it has a large impact on American workers in the lower class since migrant workers will work for less money making them more appealing. In my post I also brought up how migration is often scene as negative however that is not always the case, younger migrants are extremely well educated and productive workers that companies are looking for. I didn’t think of the point of view you mentioned, “If employers are able to pay less for migrant workers, they will have more money to either pay higher wages to more educated works for higher level positions, or retain higher profits” which when you think of it that way migration does not have the negative connotation. Revisiting

“52 out of every 100 migrant farm workers in the United States are unauthorized workers and have no legal status.” Migrant farm workers are those who leave their countries to come and work in fields. They are trying to support families back home by making some money for things like food, land, and houses. Others, bring their families with them in hopes for a better life here (González). Many people become migrant farmers for a better life, although their treatment depends on where they are, and one famous person in the migrant farm worker movement is Cesar Chavez.

In addition, immigrants also try and apply for employment when they can, to try and reach their goal of the “American Dream” or their ideal theory of freedom. However, because of the necessity of jobs they can obtain, which are those many the American’s don’t want including: janitorial, agricultural, street cleaning, or even risky jobs. Getting less than minimum wage, not aware of the laws of the government as it pertains to paying taxes becomes a cycle where they are forced by many of the employers to break the law which otherwise would be followed. Not to mention, the occasional employer takes advantage of the 'illegal alien' and usually pays below minimum wage because they know the worker has no option but to either quit or accept it. And

Living as a citizen in California’s central valley, one would observe that most of the low paying jobs in the agricultural department of the workforce are occupied by the hispanic community (most of which are illegal). This poses a problem when it comes to the availability of jobs in the U.S. I am not trying to focus on Latino immigrants in California because this is a problem in almost every state near a major border or ocean. According to an issue of the LA Times in 2002, 40% of all workers in L.A. County (L.A. County has 10 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card. A current issue in today’s economy is that it’s hard to find a job. Most people who are struggling to pay their bills will take any job if it comes down to it. In hindsight, who deserves the job to feed their family? The hardworking, tax-paying, American or the illegal, immigrant who breached our countries border?

We see immigrants in the restaurant industry, not as chefs but as dishwashers and busboys. We see them in the agriculture sector as migrant workers doing literally backbreaking work of weeding and picking our fruits and vegetables so we can purchase them at low prices. We use immigrants as gardeners and groundskeepers and expect them to work outside, in Phoenix, in 100 plus degrees. I don’t think any of "us" could tolerate the conditions that they work under. They clean our schools, our offices and our stores. They get security jobs on the shifts that American workers don’t want, night watchmen. They take the construction jobs from companies that avoid paying union wages. These opportunities are presented by American companies that are only interested in their bottom line. The desire to hire immigrant workers, documented or undocumented, is out of the greed of profit-driven corporate America. The fact that Immigrant laborers are desperate for work is exploited by the very companies that promote lower prices for consumers, American consumers. An irony of sorts. We pay lower wages so we can have lower prices at the expense of the employment of others who were making more money doing the same job. Since these American workers are now being paid the lower wage or none at all, it helps that the prices for these items and services are lower. Otherwise how else could they afford them?

Do immigrant workers fill in job vacancies and promote employment dynamics? Using Thailand's firm-surveyed data, this paper investigates the challenges experience by firms employing immigrant workers and how immigrants help to fill job vacancies. Descriptive analysis shows that Thai firms do not have much difficulty employing immigrant workers, who come mostly from neighboring countries. Our regressions shows that, by analyzing firm-level characteristics, firms employing immigrant workers tend to be more labor intensive, use computers or other technologies less in production, are recently established, and employ high proportions of low educated workers. Firms having job vacancies in either skilled or unskilled positions and losing production days due to slowdown and stoppage of workers will tend to employ more immigrant workers in order to fill those vacancies and smooth out its production.

During my research of migrant workers I was able to learn the difference between hard working men and the unthinkable hard working dedicated men who did things for their families. In saying the true definition of a migrant worker is someone whom mostly was a Mexican born son or male such as husbands, fathers, etc.. where they leave everything that we call home where were loved comfortable and safe to travel with hopes and dreams and dedication of hard work to make enough money to support and take care of their families. They go to work to be able to purchase land and support their families and to be able to feed and take care of themselves which many men died doing. Many of these men were immigrants from other countries who sacrificed all they had to make something better and more useful

People who illegally migrate believe that what they are doing is beneficial for them and their families, but in reality they are leaving their homeland to serve people who will probably judge and ridicule them. Also they risk their life in order to do something extremely unnecessary. Instead of leaving they can benefit themselves and their

Migrant workers may relocate between countries illegally with no visa or on the working visa that may be give temporarily to access the country and continue their stay after it expired with no protection. In addition, local potential employees can be still victims if factories use employment agencies to find new or more employees because human trafficking does not require transportation across the country boarders. Those agencies may impose excessive recruitment fees on workers what makes them to be bonded to the agency. Also, another way of exploiting workers by agencies is when they receive payments from the factories, deduct processing fees and then pay little or nothing to the workers that have been employed through the agency.

Behind the scenes of technological advancements, a glitzy city’s beautiful architecture, are universally exploited migrant workers. Seeking leave from the poverty they face back home under another country’s walls, their presence is something to be ‘justified’. Under contractual sponsorship, their presence can be validated, and have dodge deportation. Departing from their community back home to assist as domestic workers in someone else’s, migrant workers live under an affirmation that their work, their people, are an importable commodity.