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DBoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 08:56 AM
Original message
Many New Jobs Going to Noncitizens
Quote:
"WASHINGTON — Immigrants are filling nearly three out of every 10 new jobs in the rebounding U.S. economy, a development that may dilute the political dividend to President Bush from an election-year recovery, a study to be released today concludes.
...
The share of jobs going to noncitizens — 28.5% — was particularly notable because workers who were not U.S. citizens accounted for fewer than 9% of all those holding jobs in the United States."



LA Times (registration required): http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-jobs16jun16,1,2087153.story?coll=la-home-nation
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tandot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 09:10 AM
Response to Original message
1. So, LEGAL Resident Aliens have no right to work?
I don't want to register, so I can't read the article.

Are they suggesting that LEGAL immigrants take jobs away from Americans? They can't mean ILLEGAL immigrants, since it is against the law to hire them anyway.

As long that there is a way for corporations and businesses to get around the law and hire ILLEGAL immigrants (for way less than minimum wage) you can't blame people for trying to get to America.

LEGAL immigrants, on the other hand, work, pay taxes, participate and give back to their community as much as US citizens do. If people don't want any more legal immigrants to come to the country, the immigration laws need to be changed.

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Virginian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 09:22 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. H-1b workers brought in from India and other countries.
Some employers are not even trying to recruit Americans for these tech jobs, but instead are bringing in workers from other countries while qualified Americans are getting jobs flipping burgers and becoming servants for these newly employed workers.
These new workers can afford to purchase new homes in expensive regions and frequently drive top-of-the-line automobiles.
These people are not the future Americans, but rather "guest workers" who are more easily manipulated by their employers.
The H-1b laws used to say that these people had to be paid the same as Americans, but now Many have an L-1 status and can be paid at Indian rates while working in the US.
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2Design Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 09:40 AM
Response to Reply #2
8. they did this in the late 80s and early 90s too and
claimed they could not find qualified people although, I know I sent out lots of resumes to jobs in the paper.... had one company quoted in the newspaper that they couldn't find qualified people...wrote them and received a form letter of rejection for a job I had not applied for......

companies lie, bush lies, the economy for americans born and raised here is hostile.....and yet we have repubs who will vote bush because he has says he is against abortion and gays.... sick
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DBoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 09:22 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. I think what they are suggesting
is that the "economic boom" is less than it seems, that the increase in jobs is in low-paying jobs going to recent (mainly Latin American) immigrants. While jobs are being created, what in effect has happened is that the higher-paying jobs that vanished are being replaced with low wage work.

Also, note that the jobs are going to people who can't vote in November!! No wonder Bush is in trouble among registered or likely voters!
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 09:23 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. I don't think the legality of the immigrants is in question
nor is their right to work as legal aliens. However, it does point out what kind of jobs are being created: low wage, part time and dead end McJobs, the type new residents with poor English usually scoop up because they have no alternative.

It's too bad the snippet of article didn't point that out.
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Lugnut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 10:26 AM
Response to Reply #4
10. Exactly!
This is precisely what is happening right here in this area of NE PA.
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Mithras61 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 09:32 AM
Response to Reply #1
6. I think this is the root of the article's point...
The high proportion of new jobs going to immigrants may reflect the fact that the current recovery has thus far been different from most past upturns. In recent months, as overall job growth has begun to improve, most of the new jobs appear to have come in categories that require relatively low skills and pay relatively low wages — the kinds of jobs for which many immigrants are strong competitors.

In the past, the early stages of economic recoveries have been marked by growth in industrial jobs that pay above-average wages.

Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute think tank, said his analysis supported the idea that "the occupations that are gaining are on the low end."

He added that his own research showed that the recovery had not paid much of a dividend in terms of rising wages. "We see wage growth far less than you would expect at this stage," he said.


So while there may (or may not) be real job growth, the jobs that are available tend to be low-paying, low-skill jobs in which most skilled workers simply aren't interested. Further on down the article it notes that the study does not distinguish between documented and undocumented immigrants.

And FWIW, I recently KEPT my job because when the company tried to hire folks in India to do it, they wanted MORE money for the work, and wanted to do less value-add than I and my collegues do...
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trogdor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 09:39 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. does not distinguish between documented and undocumented immigrants.
Of course not. If it did, it might not paint such a pretty picture.
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Virginian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 11:05 AM
Response to Reply #6
14. Sounds like you have a good employer.
And FWIW, I recently KEPT my job because when the company tried to hire folks in India to do it, they wanted MORE money for the work, and wanted to do less value-add than I and my collegues do...

Many companies don't care about the quality of the work done nor the maintainability of the product. Everything seems to be for today's bottom line with no consideration of the future bottom line. I was told by one boss, "We don't care if it is done right, we just want a working product at deadline. We can always fix it later." When the bosses had us send a job to be done in India, the documentation we got with the product was not up to our standards. It didn't match the product and could never be used for future maintenance of the product.

This is in sharp contrast with the way I was raised. Do it right the first time and you won't have to throw good money after bad.
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amandabeech Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 04:14 PM
Response to Reply #1
22. It is against the law to hire illegal immigrants.
However, with good fake ID, illegals can pass as legals, as far as an employer is concerned. Employers cannot reject as fake ID that appears valid on its face, nor can employers otherwise investigate the status of those whom they suspect may be illegal. Not that many employers care.

I believe that there may be pilot programs out there that allow employers to check ID like social security numbers or tax information with the appropirate federal agency, so long as employers check all new employees, not just the ones suspected of being illegal. The Social Security Administration, for example, can tell an employer who was awarded the social security number in question and when and where, and the IRS can tell the employer who has been filing tax returns under the SS# and from what address. If the new employee's info does not match up, then the employer can take action, unless the employee has a good explanation.
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Blecht Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 04:16 PM
Response to Reply #1
23. Try Bugmenot.com
For sites that have cumpulsory registration, you can get a login at bugmenot.com.
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mhr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 09:24 AM
Response to Original message
5. Most Of The New Jobs Are Low wage, Without Benefits
Jobs even college students probably would not take.

Regrettably, many business will not fill theses jobs with Americans since they will leave as soon as something better comes along.

I've applied for some of these jobs, no takers. Too much experience.

Welcome to Bush's non economic recovery.

Low wage, no benefit hell!
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Virginian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 10:43 AM
Response to Reply #5
11. Not necessarily
Some of the jobs are high tech. The businesses bring in trained Indians so they don't have to pay American wages to us. They can then say they aren't exporting the jobs to India.

What I find strange is that these Indian workers can afford to buy expensive cars (leased?) and homes in nice neighborhoods (interest-only mortgages?) and have stay-at-home wives raising their children while that part of the American dream is beyond the reach of employed Americans of the same age range.
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Mithras61 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 10:57 AM
Response to Reply #11
13. Surprisingly, the home & car are often
not owned by the H1-B worker, but rather owned/leased by the company and are written off as a cost of doing business, sort of like lodging for contract workers can be tax deductible. This is often written into the contract that is used to "import" the worker (sort of a "company pays all normal & reasonable expenses" thing).
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Virginian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 11:33 AM
Response to Reply #13
15. So you are saying...
My young neighbors may not own their homes? That could make it bad for us in the future.
The neighborhood is new. The townhouses are 5-7 years old. I think most of them are owner-occupied, but I think they are being bought with interest-only or with balloon payment mortgages and that may be the reason for such a high turnover.
Many of these townhouses have already had two or three owners, Some have turned over as many as 4 times already. This has kept the prices climbing at a rate that I find unreal. I like my home, and my neighbors but I feel like I need to find a more stable neighborhood.

I have an uneasy feeling about property values. If the government were to cut back on issuing so many H-1b visas so I could find a job, my home might become unsellable because there would no longer be the demand for housing that we have today in this area. When I am ready to retire to a warmer climate in a few years, the housing market would have dropped to a level where I wouldn't get back what I paid for it.

I am not sure if it applies to townhouse communities, but I have read that if so many units are rentals in a condo building, the units are hard to sell because mortgage companies charge a higher interest rate or won't issue a mortgage at all.
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Mithras61 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 11:53 AM
Response to Reply #15
18. Not where I was going...
usually the property is owned or leased by the company, so while the resident H-1b worker might change, ownership doesn't, so it shouldn';t inflate the price or the property. The interest-only or ballon payment mortgages may very well be the reason for some of the turn-over, but you'd have to do more research to find out if the property was sold/bought, or just has it's residents changed.

Property values is a tricky issue. There are usually multiple things that cause the values to change, especially when the change is quite rapid. The interest-only & baloon payment mortgages usually come in after this starts, because people think they'll be able to sell in a year or so for a profit and can cover the mortgage principle with the increase in value.
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Virginian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 02:37 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. A unit across
from me was only owned for a year. The owner had a back injury and had to move to a single level home. After one year ownership, they made a profit after paying the agent 6% and whatever other fees were involved.

These townhouses are being bought and sold. Many are selling at above asking price. We get postcards from agents all the time telling us what our neighbors sold their homes for.
The first reaction might be "Sell, Sell, take your equity and run."

I like my neighbors. Except for a few who have no idea what a lawn mower is, they are good neighbors. Crime is low. I live next to my polling place (a school). It is a very mixed neighborhood. The builder included ADUs (Affordable dwelling units) in the design, so we have people of various income levels as well as various racial, and ethnic backgrounds. There is no majority group here, but the southern Asians do seem to be one of the largest minorities. It is pretty close to a perfect neighborhood.

I just think that a neighborhood that isn't turning over as fast may be more stable in value than this one. I have a feeling of artificially inflated value because of the turnover. If the government ever put a limit on the H-1b visas so that I could get a job, the turnover might stop and many of my neighbors might have to abandon their homes. I don't want to live in a ghost town.
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tandot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 10:17 AM
Response to Original message
9. Thanks to ALL posters for making clear what the article says
This article (from the title to what was posted) sounded like it is trying to stir some anti-immigrant sentiment.

Sooner or later, lots of jobs having to do with computers or stuff that can be done over the internet, will go overseas. What will be left are low-paying blue-collar jobs.

Economic Recovery, my ass.
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Mountainman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 10:53 AM
Response to Reply #9
12. That is part of the conservative plan
Conservatives are greedy and they are creating a world where their wealth creation is all that matters. To do that they need a class of worker bees to do all the menial jobs that support their life styles. When I say conservatives I don't mean freeper wannabes. They are just fools who think that they will be on the winning side some time. I'm talking about the wealthy conservative ruling class.

If you had conservatives in power for 8 more years they would completely do away with the middle class in this country. All middle class jobs would be outsourced for lower costs and all that is left would be the low skilled jobs.

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saigon68 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 11:41 AM
Response to Reply #12
16. You are right MM someone needs to clean toilets
And the name Maria Gomez or Bee Yang comes to mind as eminently qualified.</sarcasm>
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ElsewheresDaughter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 11:46 AM
Response to Original message
17. they pay them less too..in my area we are being swamped with russian &
polish workers making it nearly impossible for locals to compete
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stickdog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 03:53 PM
Response to Original message
20. Another link.
Edited on Wed Jun-16-04 03:53 PM by stickdog
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2630046

The high proportion of new jobs going to recent immigrants may reflect the fact that the current recovery has thus far been different from most past upturns. In recent months, as overall job growth has begun to improve, most of the new jobs appear to have come in categories that require relatively low skills and pay relatively low wages -- the kinds of jobs for which new immigrants are strong competitors.

In the past, the early stages of economic recoveries have been marked by growth in industrial jobs that pay above-average wages.

Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute think-tank, said his analysis supports the idea that "the occupations that are gaining are on the low end."




Surprise, surprise, surprise!

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DiverDave Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 03:58 PM
Response to Original message
21. I am 16K in debt for IT training
Edited on Wed Jun-16-04 04:00 PM by DiverDave
I cannot find anything but low level contract work.
I am broke and disgusted with it.
When I renewed my drivers license I kept my CDL.
I am going back to driving a truck, I have not been able to provide for my family.
So, all you "grab your bootstraps" retards, guess what? I did it and all it did was put me in debt and almost lost my house.
Furreners getting the IT jobs?, go get your CDL, there are lots of jobs for drivers.
I just wish I would have givin up on the IT field sooner.
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Tight_rope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 04:31 PM
Response to Reply #21
24. Looks like you still got suckered...look at the price of gas.
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Frangible Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 04:42 PM
Response to Reply #21
25. IT sucks
Piss-poor market, zero job security.

I wish I would have become a RN instead. High pay, good job security, always in demand.
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LiberalFighter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-04 06:57 PM
Response to Original message
26. Noncitizens CAN'T vote
So they can't show their happiness by voting for gw*
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