Immigrant Workers

December 4, 2009
Leo Mosquera
Comp 111
Research paper

IMMIGRANT WORKERS

Immigrants had decide to come to the United states leaving behind their families and exposing their live crossing the border in seek of better work opportunities, freedom, and happiness. However, the reality is other. For thousands of years people have left their home country in search of happiness. Immigrants today still equate the country they are immigrating to with the Promised Land. While many times this Promised Land dream comes true, other times the reality is much different than the dream. Immigration is not always a perfect journey. Each year there are several hundred deaths along the Mexico-U.S. border for those attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico without authorization from the Federal Government of the United States. The number of deaths has steadily increased since the middle 1990’s with exposure (including heat stroke, dehydration, and hyperthermia) being the leading cause. According to the United States Border Patrol, 1,954 people died crossing the U.S–Mexico border between the years 1998-2004. In the fiscal year ending September 29, 2004, 460 migrants died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. And in 2005, more than 500 died across the entire U.S.-Mexico border. The number of yearly border crossing deaths has doubled since 1995. (Immigration counter)

In the US, going to the supermarket can be quite the experience. We take a cart and go down the aisles while imagining future culinary experiences. We start at the vegetable and fruit sections. We grab some apples or some oranges; we examine them, check them for quality and if we are content with the products we place them in the cart for later purchase. We move on, perhaps to the poultry aisle, we begin to inspect the meat, its fineness, its cleanness, and once again content with our selection, we place it in the cart and move on. There might be one more stop; possibly some eggs, frozen foods, canned goods or any other product that a supermarket may offer to keep our stomachs and minds pleased. After we have selected the desired products, we proceed to the cash register, pay for our selections and we are on our way. Did we ever stop to think who made all of the wonders the earth has to offer available to us? Did we ever stop to wonder who harvested, picketed and packaged those products?

A single thought never came to our mind regarding the millions of workers that each day devote hours to the products we eat and enjoy. We barely recognized the fact that each passing day we purchase products that were literally brought to us by the labor of a person’s hard-working hands. We never thought of the poor living conditions, the maltreatment, and the injustice these workers endure to survive, along with their families, week after week. Never did we stop to think that these workers needed representation so that their most fundamental rights be; at the very least, protected.

It was not until I started this research paper that I witnessed the cruel reality behind the products we have the benefit of enjoying. Mexicans, Guatemalans and Costa Ricans workers, among others, migrating on a yearly basis to work at a U.S. farm, factories, and/or ware-houses for less that minimum wage and to live under poor sanitary conditions, one shack per twenty people with one bathroom. (John Carl, 255-256) Migrant workers that dedicate more than twelve hours a day to a farm, factory, and/or ware-house that provides no accessible toilets, safety equipment, or drinking water near their working stations. Migrant workers that have died of dehydration or become injured at the job and must either continue to work or go home because they do not have the benefit of workers compensation. Migrant workers that must return to work year after year because there are no other alternatives their home-countries do not create enough jobs for them to remain at home with their families. Migrant workers that pick, harvest, and package the very products we buy at the supermarket who lawfully have no rights to overtime payment. Migrant workers whose rights are barely recognized and regularly forgotten. (Janneth Stevenson, 108-112)

Many times the phrase "melting pot" is used to describe the United States of America. The United States is a country built on ideals such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other basic human rights. These ideals, though they may have originated from European men labeled as liberals, eventually captured followers from all over the world. Soon, America was a mixture of people with different ethnic backgrounds, religions, and cultures all working together for the "American Dream." (John F. Kennedy, 5-11) America is known as the land of the free and the home of the brave. Yet this so called idea of being “free” came with a price. Through warfare, death, and numerous other sacrifices, America has devoted so much to be what it is today. Therefore, millions of people had immigrated from Central and South America to this land seeking for new opportunities. As a consequence, immigration has molded America into the nation that has become and will continue to frame this as a “melting pot society” whether we “citizens” like it or not. All of the people came to this country for freedom, money, or happiness. There have been a number of Immigration Acts in the United States. The first one was the Naturalization act of 1790. Then the immigration act of 1965 passed, and immigration restrictions applied to Mexican Immigrants for the first time. Nearly 30 years later in 1986, the immigration Reform and Control Act was created. This act granted amnesty to immigrants that had lived in the United States before 1982. (Jane Carson, 417-420) All This acts helped the illegal immigrants, of that time, to once again believe in the “American Dream.”

From the early 1960’s until today there are massive waves of illegal immigration. These "new" illegal immigrants are largely from Central and South America. (Center of Immigration Studies) There is a mixed reaction to these incoming foreigners. While employers benefit from these workers because they are typically paid under the table, which reduces pay-roll taxes, provide a cheaper source of labor, and have no legal recourse regarding working conditions; Americans are both afraid of and hostile towards these new groups. They differed from the "typical American" in language, customs, and religion. The United State has always been faced with the problem of discrimination. It is one of the most discussed topics nowadays and throughout history. In the United States there is most likely at least one type of discrimination that affects different groups of people. In this case immigrant workers mainly from Central and South America. (Carol M. Swain, 45-47) The definition of discrimination is the denial of opportunity or equal rights (fair payment, basic sanitary conditions, and legal representation) for a specific group of people that may be differentiated by things; such as, their religion, color of skin, gender, status, or background.

This partially explains why immigrant workers are disproportionately poor and much more likely than citizens to have low-wage and low-skill jobs such as food preparation, child care, janitorial services, construction and gardening. They sew the clothes we wear, they pick the food we eat, they clean our homes, tend our lawns, even watch our children. “They”, illegal immigrants in the U.S. cities and rural communities, are largely unprotected by U.S. laws governing worker’s safety, health and wages. Illegal workers often work under cruel conditions and frequently their vision of the American dream ends in nightmare. For example, in Iowa, meat-packing factories, many workers hacking at meat routinely lose fingers and skin, and get little or no medical attention. In northern California, field workers have no access to bathrooms, sanitary water or sleep areas, they often dig pits in the ground to create beds. In Houston, three immigrant workers died when they got caught in the shredding machines. And In Petaluma California, a dress factory, immigrants protested because they were forced to work 12-hour days, stitching intricate garments with too small needles, causing eye strain and carpal tunnel syndrome. Speaking about awful situations, an interview conducted by Jackie Cooperman with an illegal immigrant working in a New York sweatshop, Herman Martinez confessed: “What happens is that the one thing in our minds is we need to work and we have to work because we don’t want to go back to our country with nothing, so we do not have a choice. We have to work no matter what.” (John Carl, 105-120)

Illegal immigrants have a positive effect on the American economy. History has shown that prosperity follows immigration. Economists point out that the economic boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s was driven by immigration, and the depression of the 1930’s began after the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924 was implemented. Illegal workers provide a flexible, low cost labor pool for United States companies, thus allowing local companies to compete with inexpensive imports from cheap labor companies. Without illegal immigrants, many United States factories would go offshore. Illegal immigrants usually work in low paying positions that most Americans refuse to do. For decades, whenever there was a shortage of farm workers, the INS border patrol pretended that they did not see the illegal workers crossing the border. (Richard T. Herman and Robert L. Smith, 45-55)

The U.S. Census Bureau showed that the nation's immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached nearly 38 million in March 2007, one-third of which are comprised of illegal immigrants. (U.S. Census Bureau) Immigrants increase the supply of labor and help produce new goods and services. According to the Stanford Professor David Lagesse, there were approximately 7.7 million illegal workers employed in U.S. jobs in 2008. And according to his study, immigrants (legal and Illegal) contribute as much as $10 billion in economic growth each year, which 3.5 billion are from the illegal immigrants. (Center for Immigration Studies) Illegal immigrants contribute much more money to the government than they receive in benefits, and therefore are not a social burden. Illegal immigrants pay millions of dollars into Social Security that they will never collect. They also pay state income, sales, and property taxes for which they receive few benefits. The Orange County Task Force found that illegal immigrants pay $83 million taxes each year and they receive medical services costing only $2.7 million per year. (David, William F., Timothy Connor, and Sandro Grant, 310-315) Most immigrants are drawn by the hope of better jobs, not by United States benefits programs. When job prospects them, many return home. Far from ripping off the system, illegal immigrants are more likely to be paying for it, says Douglas Massey of Princeton’s office of Population Research. (Carol M. Swain, 250-251) The energy of the immigrants has become essential to this country. While illegal immigrants work in the fields, wash dishes, and labor in sweatshops, millions of Americans would rather sit on stoops and wait for welfare checks. Approximately 700,000 immigrants are legally accepted to the United States each year. All others are turned away or cross illegally. (immigration counter)

In conclusion, most illegal immigrants are good human beings worthy of compassion and acceptance. From their point of view, a visa is just a stamp on a piece of paper which can be ignored in exchange for a better life. Illegal immigrants should be allowed into America. These hard working immigrants are a vital part of the American economy, they contribute more money to the government than they receive in benefits, and current immigration policies are discriminatory. It is America’s responsibility to insure that all people seeking freedom and a better life can have a chance to fulfill their dreams.