Ayers And Lutz On The Military And Latinos

The second essay question asks about the various public policy issues discussed in class in second half of the course. The three readings I will be referencing are Ayers and Lutz on the military and Latinos, also I will reference the “Without Immigrant Labor, The Economy Would Crumble” by Tamar Jacoby which focuses on the reliance on Immigrants in the U.S economic structure.

The first article, “Military Recruiters are Using and Abusing our Kids” by William Ayers, focuses on military recruitment in schools. The article starts by giving examples of people who have been in the military and share their experiences with the process of becoming a soldier( Ayer,14-15). Some of these men and women come from rough childhoods and have left for the military
A look at Race, Class and Immigration Status” by Amy Lutz, looks at the ethnic groups within the military. The article looks into the various ethnic groups within the military and their history of the groups service within the U.S. military. Latinos have a long history within the military; having served since the war of 1812(Lutz,169). The research shows that Latinos are the smallest group within the top 3 of Whites, Blacks and Hispanics, they are also not represented as high as blacks and whites within the military when compared to their percentage of the general population(Lutz,177).They are however overrepresented in areas where personnel handed weapons and underrepresented in technical operations(Lutz,170). The numbers also lead the author to conclude that members of lower socioeconomic classes are more likely to join the military, structed on these class lines (Lutz, 185). The higher the income within the family, the lower the likelihood of service(Lutz,179).This ties into the previous article which showed the focus on the low income areas. This information leads to the conclusion that We should see a rise in Latino participation in the military with the enhanced focus on the areas where they are the dominant race. With the more data
This short but information intensive article focuses on Immigrantions hold on the economy. The author makes verbose claims that Immigrants are the only cheap labor available to do unskilled jobs (Jacoby,1). This is supported with the fact that in 1960, half of native born men were dropouts who wanted to work in cheap labor, but today less than 10% do the same. By pointing out the decline in able bodied native born men who filled the unskilled jobs that are the backbone of the American economy, the author points out that the jobs these immigrants are doing support the lower income jobs that native born americans are doing, Jobs such as a waiter or foreman (Jacoby,1). The article also denies the claim that Americans would pursue jobs that immigrants are occupying by proving that in order to properly provide a good pay, they would put themselves out of business (Jacoby,1). Simply, other countries would be able to out do American business and farm owners because they have much cheaper labor. So in a sense, we are lucky to have these immigrants, they do the jobs that Americans won’t, they are the support beams of the economy, working the lowest jobs, but does it positively or negatively influence their own political attitudes? Positively, is what the influence should be, while at the moment, immigration itself has been thrown on the national