Since when have immigrants been accused of 'stealing' american jobs?

Question

And, in YOUR in your opinion, is this true?

Answer 1

When the German, Irish, Italians came in the 19th the native blame them for stealing jobs. Mexicans being accused is no different. The difference now is that we have immigration rules, and laws back then thier was none.

Answer 2

Since this country was founded, the original dominant race/culture was unhappy when others took jobs. Look at the treatment the Irish got at the turn of the 20th century. Ireland was hit with the potato famine and Irish flooded the US in huge amounts. They would work for a tiny fraction of what normal americans would accept.

We've just replaced the Irish with the big flood of hispanics in the last few decades. It is a bigger problem now because back then the taxpayers didn't support the poor and unemployed. Now we have social programs for everything. Add to that the illegals do NOT pay any taxes, you can see why the average American is ticked off about shouldering the burden for someone who snuck in illegally.

Also keep in mind in past centuries the US was vast and empty. We needed people, and the immigration doors were wide open. Now we've run out of open space, farmland is becoming so expensive farmers are run out of business, and our resources are becoming limited. We have no choice but to close the door partway to immigrants.

Yes, I do feel they're "stealing" because the immigrants that are taking the lowest end jobs are those here illegally. They flaunt our laws to get the job. They do not pay taxes, but they do use our social programs, welfare, hospitals, and more. Their kids get free education. And yet they still refuse ot learn English or replace their Mexican flag with the US one.

I think the companies who employ them are equally to blame. If the company was playing a living wage to start with, Americans WOULD take the job. But who can live on under $6/hr? And some of these companies pay under the table so you know the workers aren't even getting minimum wage. Americans can't compete with that.

Answer 3

This same thing, was said by White-American 70-80 years ago. When the Depression struck in 1929, some began to blame Mexicans for taking jobs away from Americans. "The slogan has gone out over the city and is being adhered to ?employ no Mexican while a white man is unemployed: get the Mexican back into Mexico regardless by what means," the secretary of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce wrote. "All this without taking into consideration the legality of the Mexican's status of being here. It is a question of pigment, not a question of citizenship or right." But even if he saw this as injustice, the secretary still thought of Mexicans in economic terms: his real worry was that employers would find themselves "high and dry as far as agricultural labor is concerned."

The very people who had been involved in "Americanization" programs came up with the solution to the "Mexican problem": deport them. Since formal deportation was expensive and complex, they proposed deportation including American Citizens, with local governments paying the way of all who wanted to leave. Many of those who left thought this was a momentary adjustment; just as they had left Mexico when there was no work there, so they would be leaving the United States temporarily. Others were simply forced to leave. In any case, the people supervising deportation made sure to secretly stamp the migrants' papers with the seal of the county welfare group. Because entry could be denied to anyone "likely to become a public charge" (to receive welfare), this stamp guaranteed that they could never enter the United States again.

In 1940, the Mexican-origin population in the U.S. in 1940 was half what it had been in 1930. But this also suggests how many had remained, often becoming involved in labor protest, still drawn to the opportunities of a country that did not accept them as full equals, on their way to becoming Mexican-Americans.

Answer 4

To answer the above post, America is finally discovering how many illegals are breaking in America every day. The number tops 12 million, which makes up a substantial proportion of the population.

The wages ARE artifically deflated, because business owners want to make a larger profit margin. The irony is that while people insist that more illegals come and "stimulate the economy", the very same people will demand that these underpaid workers get more for minimum wage, and whine about how they're being underpaid and mistreated.

Make up your minds already.

Yes, immigrants are stealing jobs, and the equity in those jobs. And for those of you who ARE supporting illegals in their quest for breaking in the country and amnesty - I can only hope that one day you come across an illegal that will take your $15.00 an hour job with benefits, and watch him undercut you to work for $7.50 an hour with no benefits.

Only then will some of you recognize the cancer that is illegal immigration.

Answer 5

Each year, the Mexican govenment issues work permits to tens of thousands of Guatemalans. When asked why, in a country as poor and desperate as Mexico, does the government not withdraw these permits and allow the jobs to be filled by Mexicans, the reply is always the same.

"The Mexicans don't want these jobs, the Mexicans are not willing to do these jobs, the work ethic of the Mexican worker is just not what it used to be. Our Mexican workers simply will not work as hard under these conditions as the Guatemalans." Sound familiar to you?

Before the US was filled with illegal immigrants, the crops were picked, lawns were mowed, dishes were washed, houses were built, and children were babysat without any problems. The fact of the matter is that Americans in America would do these jobs, they just don't want to do them at the wages offered by some employers...wages that are artificially depressed by illegal immigrants who work at a wage that is below what the market would normally bear. Illegal workers and the employers who use them bring down wages and the standard of living for millions of Americans who would otherwise be able to earn more and live better.

Answer 6

I detest the fact that Bush has broken the very foundations of the concept of getting along with other nations so wide open, so beyond repair, that we even try to pound our chest and threaten our immediate neighbor to the south.

That this wedge issue took hold so fast and easy just tells me, if I needed to be told again, that racism and rampant brainless nationalism and class consciousness, as in hatred of brown people, hatred of people who don't speak English, and hatred of people we see as poor and dirty, is alive and well in the twenty-first century.

We should all be ashamed of the mileage we are allowing politicians on both sides of the aisle to get from this issue. When is somebody in charge going to THINK about this issue, rather than spew FEELINGS and lead people around by the nose with those feelings?

Answer 7

Since the day they stole them. My ex-husband wasn't hired by many companies, especially in Arizona, and New Mexico, because he was white, American, (over-qualified, having 20 years of experience in every facet of construction) and would not take scraps for pay, as a pipe fitter that the illegals working in the shop did. The companies who hire them are more responsible for it though. They hired them, and should be arrested. prosecuted, and imprisoned for aiding, and abetting illegals to commit a crime, also losing their businesses. If there wasn't any jobs, given by business owning American's with NO HONOR, and love of money, above love and honor of country, we wouldn't have this dilemma.
God Bless American's with LOVE and HONOR of country!

Answer 8

Because they are when they work for less or bid lower for jobs. It's especially so in the various construction fields. There are tons of people pushed out for cheaper wages. Not because there's not people to do it. There's people who have worked for years and deserved to be paid what they were making, yet the greed factor comes in and they want cheap and tons of people willing to work for cheap.

Answer 9

Im assuming you mean 'illegal' immigrants

i dont know since when but i dont think thats true, because usually the jobs that immigrants are more than willing to do, americans won't do.

Answer 10

I believe that a big part of the problem is that the Mexicans are not tall and blond. If they were, the Americans would not be so evil about their entry into the country. The problem is the open borders that allow ill-intentioned people into the country. the Mexicans just want to work and make enough money so their families do not perish.