Immigration Skyrockets as Americans Lose Their Jobs

[peejay 327]

Immigration Skyrockets as Americans Lose Their Jobs

by Virgil Goode

06/01/2010

With 10% unemployment, one would think that the government would consider lowering the number of green cards issued to foreign workers until Americans were back on their feet. Amazingly, recently released data from the Department of Homeland Security shows that we have actually increased immigration. Far from reflecting supply and demand, our legal immigration numbers continue to climb no matter the state of the national economy.

The latest figures come from fiscal year 2009. The fiscal year began on October 1, 2008, which is when our economic collapse began and continued through September of 2009. Over five million Americans lost their jobs during that period.

America issued 1,130,818 permanent green cards, 808,478 of which were given to immigrants of working age. This is an increase over 2008 and 2007. Excluding the extra green cards given after the 1986 amnesty, this was the second highest number of green cards issued since 1914. From 2000 though 2009, we issued 10,299,430—the highest decade in American history.

In addition to the green cards, the government issued 881,840 temporary work visas and gave refugee or asylum status to 96,721 aliens. The total increase to the American workforce was 1.75 million foreign workers. According to the Census Bureau, 1 out of every 6 workers is foreign born.

What are the possible justifications for this policy? Are these immigrants taking jobs Americans won’t do? With the unemployment rate at nearly 10%, no one can say this with a straight face.

Does this create diversity? The pool of legal immigrants is rather un-diverse. Less than 10% of them come from Europe.

Does more legal immigration decrease illegal immigration? If that were the case, you would have expected the illegal immigration numbers to decline as legal immigration increased. In fact, they have both skyrocketed.

Instead of talking about reducing these numbers, politicians are calling for raising the level of legal immigration. Senators Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.), Robert Menendez (D.-N.J.), and Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) recently released an outline for their ideas for “comprehensive immigration reform.” They call for adding an additional 3.4 million family visas and 550,000 work visas.

In the house, Representatives Luis Gutierrez (D.-Ill.) and Solomon Ortiz (D.-Tex.) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act (H.R. 4321) which makes the same proposals for increasing family and work visas, but one ups them by adding a special new visa category of 100,000 permanent green cards a year to go specifically to Latin American countries.

There are two bills in Congress that will reduce legal immigration. Rep. Phil Gingrey’s (R.-Ga.) Nuclear Family Priority Act (H.R.878) will limit family-based immigration and reduce 111,800 green cards. Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R.-Va.) SAFE for America Act (H.R.2305) will eliminate the Visa Lottery category that grants 50,000 visas a year. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership is not backing these bills and they only have 30 and 57 co-sponsors, respectively.

These bills are a great start, but even if they passed we’d still issue nearly one million green cards a year. If we really want to put Americans back to work, we need a moratorium across nearly all categories of legal immigration. A moratorium will free up jobs for American citizens, reduce the stress on social services, and allow the immigrants already here to assimilate.

The only people who will lose out from a moratorium are the ethnic interests who want new constituents and the business lobbies who want cheap labor. Unfortunately, both political parties are more concerned with the well-being of these special interests than the well-being American citizens.

Mr. Goode represented Virginia's 5th Congressional District from 1997 through 2009.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37229

[IndigoSkies 168]

Not to be a party pooper but America adds millions of jobs to its economy every year and those jobs need to be filled. It's very wrong to assume a laid off engineer is going to take on the job of cutting your grass or delivering your authentic Greek pizza. Of the people I know who lost job personally are very high skilled. They're moping in their house about the economy while holding the newspaper that's looking for lawn care professionals. But they don't even consider this job.

In 2009, there were 1.8 million jobs according to http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost. According to this article 1.75 million new immigrants came to this country. Let's forget for second that not every immigrant who comes to America works. 1.75 millions are hardly enough to fill in all the jobs. The problem isn't there aren't jobs in America. The problem is there aren't certain types of jobs in America anymore due to mechanization, modernization, outsourcing, and plain old efficiency. You don't need a Joe to see if your cookies have metal in them. A computer does the job faster, better and more accurately; so, metal checker's job in a cookie plant is gone forever.

The crux of the problem is that American’s didn’t keep up with times. They didn’t expand their skills and abilities with time. They hoped to be working as metal checker in cookie plant until they retired in 25 years. This is very evident when one considers how pathetically Americas score in maths and sciences.

Blaming immigration is too easy, plainly xenophobia, and one that will prove to be fatal to American continuity. America needs people to fill in its vast empty spaces and, most importantly, it needs people as consumer. American export is dwindling due to other countries improving their internal productions. So if America can’t export its junks, who is going to buy them? Answer: the people within the country.

You think I am wrong? Then take a look a China. It’s got a huge export imbalance with import and China knows it won’t be long before the export becomes lesser and lesser. That’s why it’s trying to turn its 1.3 billion citizens into consumers and doing everything to build middle class who can buy luxury items.

As long as America creates more jobs than there are people willing to take on those specific created jobs, there will be immigration and illegal immigration. This is just pragmatic thoughts.

[Dan J 277]

Its not as simple as having x number of workers to fill y number of jobs. A lot of laid off workers don't have the skills to take jobs in industries where there is job growth and it will take a lot of time to retrain and get enough experience to get into another industry.

[ValerieA 350]

Immigration Skyrockets as Americans Lose Their Jobs

by Virgil Goode

06/01/2010

...

There are two bills in Congress that will reduce legal immigration. Rep. Phil Gingrey's (R.-Ga.) Nuclear Family Priority Act (H.R.878) will limit family-based immigration and reduce 111,800 green cards. Rep. Bob Goodlatte's (R.-Va.) SAFE for America Act (H.R.2305) will eliminate the Visa Lottery category that grants 50,000 visas a year. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership is not backing these bills and they only have 30 and 57 co-sponsors, respectively.

These bills are a great start, but even if they passed we'd still issue nearly one million green cards a year. If we really want to put Americans back to work, we need a moratorium across nearly all categories of legal immigration. A moratorium will free up jobs for American citizens, reduce the stress on social services, and allow the immigrants already here to assimilate.

The only people who will lose out from a moratorium are the ethnic interests who want new constituents and the business lobbies who want cheap labor. Unfortunately, both political parties are more concerned with the well-being of these special interests than the well-being American citizens.

Mr. Goode represented Virginia's 5th Congressional District from 1997 through 2009.

http://www.humaneven...le.php?id=37229

I'm pretty sure that USC spouses of non-USCs would lose out from this too. So, you are advocating keeping families separate?

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

I'm pretty sure that USC spouses of non-USCs would lose out from this too. So, you are advocating keeping families separate?

How many approved spousal / fiance visa were there last year, anyone know?

[ValerieA 350]

How many approved spousal / fiance visa were there last year, anyone know?

Was off looking this up...it's LPR, not approved visas, but thought it would be representative.

In2009, a total of 1,130,818 persons became LPRs of the United States (see Table 1 and Figure 1). The majority of new LPRs (59 percent) already lived in the United States when they were granted lawful permanent residence. Nearly two-thirds were granted permanent resident status based on a family relationship with a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States. The leading countries of birth of new LPRs were Mexico (15 percent), China (6 percent), and the Philippines (5 percent).

Link

Edited June 2, 2010 by ValerieA

[justashooter 430]

1.)The crux of the problem is that American’s didn’t keep up with times. They didn’t expand their skills and abilities with time. They hoped to be working as metal checker in cookie plant until they retired in 25 years. This is very evident when one considers how pathetically Americas score in maths and sciences.

2.) Blaming immigration is too easy, plainly xenophobia, and one that will prove to be fatal to American continuity. America needs people to fill in its vast empty spaces and, most importantly, it needs people as consumer. American export is dwindling due to other countries improving their internal productions. So if America can’t export its junks, who is going to buy them? Answer: the people within the country.

You think I am wrong? Then take a look a China. It’s got a huge export imbalance with import and China knows it won’t be long before the export becomes lesser and lesser. That’s why it’s trying to turn its 1.3 billion citizens into consumers and doing everything to build middle class who can buy luxury items.

1.) Americans have kept up with the times as well as any other nation. in America a high score in math or science is not bought from an instructor in yuan, or acheived by a "shooter" (in china, a shooter is a person who takes tests for college students, entering the examinations with the consent of a bribed proctor. this is common practice).

2.) blaming immigration is valid, as long as US companies hire indians on H1b to do tech support in USA because they are cheaper than an American graduate with the same skills (salary differential is 20-30%, headhunter shops fees included, no benefits package included, and you can cancel their contract easier than firing a USA employee). blaming immigration for the shortage of all kinds of jobs stateside is not xenophobia (xenophobia is an unreasonable fear of different types of people, what you are seeing now is a reasonable reaction to unfair competition).

America does not need people to fill it's vast empty spaces. they are fine just the way they are. you must be chinese to think that unfilled space is a bad thing. American export is not shrinking, it is expanding, and it is not affected by second world countries "improving their internal manufacturing production". second world countries are increasing the environmentally destructive manufacturing processes without improving them (look at the environmental wasteland that china has become. the fish refuse to live in the rivers there, and the trees refuse to grow. it is a dead place even compared to what it was 20 years ago). germany, china, and USA are all in the same ballpark in terms of international currency valuation of exports, and neither germany nor the USA is doing it with factories financed by state mandated business loans made to state owned enterprises without expectation of repayment (non-performing loans, in which china is the world leader).

as for china's attempt to stimulate it's internal consumption, well, that is stifled by recognition of the instability of chinese politics, the starvation wages imposed upon the vast majority of chinese people, and the sheer greed of the remainder. most people in china save the majority of their money because there is no health insurance or retirement or disability insurance, much less unemployment insurance. most urban skilled labourers (machinist or electronics assembler, for example) make about $250 USD per month, and cannot afford the ipod they are putting together after paying $20 per month for a walk up unheated masonry tennement, a dollar a day for cheap streetside food, sending 20% of their salary home to parents who are struggling on the unmechanised and unelectrified farm, and spending the balance on new skinny jeans with glitter on them. and by the time the ipod hits the streetside dealer it is marked up to 150% of what it costs in USA anyway, due to the greed of the vendor chain.

and i'm not even gonna mention the fact that 80% of chinese are living hand to mouth on the hand cultivated farms with an average salary of $150USD per year from profit on agricultural goods taken from the soil by the sweat of their backs.

no thanks. the rest of the world got nothing to show us, and can stay the way it is. falsified economies like china's will fail soon enough, and we don't need their teeming masses creating any more drain on our society. i've lived there and seen it close up, and i like it better in America, just the way it is.

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Its not as simple as having x number of workers to fill y number of jobs. A lot of laid off workers don't have the skills to take jobs in industries where there is job growth and it will take a lot of time to retrain and get enough experience to get into another industry.

And if we continue to import workers rather than training our own we will have a long term underclass in America.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

And if we continue to import workers rather than training our own we will have a long term underclass in America.

Outsourcing just doesn't quite have the same zing though.

[IndigoSkies 168]

Your mumbling blabbers.

First of all don't get stuck on the specifics. If you take the extremely smart people in America and compare them to the extremely smart people of China, extremely smart Americans are going to be smarter than extremely smart Chinese or Indians.

H-1B visas aren't granted to tech support guys. My company has outsourced the internal help-desk to an Indian company. They do our support from India, over the phone. But the same company provides our company with highly skilled developer and engineer who come to America on that said visa program. I am going to blame your ignorance on this matters to simply that, ignorance. Some of these very jobs are advertised on our website for any American to apply for and get hired.

America doesn’t need to fill its spaces with people. Yeah, yeah. That's all great. But what are you going to do when your mom loses her job in Hershey plant because no other country imports American Hershey and there aren't enough American to enjoy delicious bars of milk chocolate. You need consumer for economy to grow, to add job. You need middle class to buy up craps, create demand, create jobs, etc. I'll give you another example.

People in China save. But they also spend. Since 2000, China's GDP went from 1.2 trillion to 4.3 trillion in 2008. How much of it is due to internal consumption and how much of it due to export? There are millions of new cars on Chinese roads every year. More so than in America. That's exactly why FORD is doing well in China. Chinese automakers are building new cars, new models, new plants, and new jobs because they think 1.3 billion Chinese are going to want a car. Chinese auto export is diddly-squat.

Chinese are nowhere near American when it comes to purchasing powers. But don't discount the Chinese desire to buy, buy, and buy and its effect on job creation and economical growth. You ought to do a bit more studying on elementary economical theories.

PS: Your blatant disfavors for internationalism, immigration, etc are quite inexplicable other than through sustained xenophobia.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It's very wrong to assume a laid off engineer is going to take on the job of cutting your grass or delivering your authentic Greek pizza.

He's 'the only bag boy at Publix with an MBA'

After losing his job during the slow economy, Don Gould, 46, went from a six-

figure position managing a design company to work as a front service clerk at

Publix in Land O’Lakes. Gould says it’s important to show his three sons that

there’s dignity in any work.

[IndigoSkies 168]

More power to him. Work is work. If you can do a job and earn six-figure, great. If you can't and need to work and make 20000 a year, that's great, too. Keep doing that and there won't be need for immigrant to take your jobs.

[ScottThuy 140]

He's 'the only bag boy at Publix with an MBA'

After losing his job during the slow economy, Don Gould, 46, went from a six-

figure position managing a design company to work as a front service clerk at

Publix in Land O'Lakes. Gould says it's important to show his three sons that

there's dignity in any work.

[Dan J 277]

And if we continue to import workers rather than training our own we will have a long term underclass in America.

If we don't, we risk hampering innovation and economic growth. Of course some companies do abuse H-1B to get cheaper workers, but its not all that.

[justashooter 430]

your mumbling blabbers

classic amateur tactic when confronted with reality and experience beyond your own is to deny the facts and re-iterate the usual babble in generalities and obfuscation that you read in the press, because it makes you more comofrtable with an uncomfortable truth. my wanting to stay on top by refusing to share the accumulated wealth in capital and infrastructure that was garnered by myself and the generations of my forefathers who have toiled on this land and fought for it for over 350 years is not zenophobia, though it may be less than generous.

chinese have desire to buy. there are 300 million of them in urban environments on an average family salary of about $2000 per year. their desire is stifled. the 2-3% of them that have "made it" through hard work, risk, education, or just plain old graft, corruption, and nepotism, are buying cars left and right. my father in law has 3. but 97% of chinese can't even dream of owning a car that could legally be sold in America. the average 5 passenger sedan (chinese made joint venture buick regal) sells for 40,000 USD in china (20 years average salary). sure, you can buy the chinese designed QQ for about $4000, but it's just a cracker box and doesn't meet US safety standard.

chinese people are not happy with the current economic situation in china. low education people are starving for work, and factory people are on "temporary leave" for the last few years. their college graduate unemployment rate is over 20%, and their costs of staples (food, necessitites) is up 15-20% over the last 4 years. pork (staple meat) price has doubled. all that increase in export is being shoveled back into the banks to keep the non-performing loans used to build all that new manufacturing from finding their way to light. if the chinese economy slows down just one bit, it's all gonna tumble.

foreign engineers of all types work in US jobsites. i used to work with 6 of them, mostly indian and chinese. all of them are contract employees and are working for less than a par American salary, have no benefits, and can be let go at will. their employer has hired them for this reason.

as for hershey and the middle class, my mom died in 1983. the middle class is already here in USA (unlike most other countries), so hershey will be just fine. they make enough money on the amusement park that they can slide on the chocolate.

learn a little bit more before you go typing stuff that makes you look inexperienced and untraveled. once you have experienced the specifics, the generalities begin to make sense, or not.