Migrating Workers

"Going home to a place I've never been before." -- John Denver

Everybody needs somebody to feel better than. -- Pug Mahoney, Cynic in Chief

"I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door." -- Emma Lazarus, inscribed on a statue in New York Harbor

   Now that the U.S. government plans to pull American troops out of Afghanistan, we can look forward to an increasing influx of Afghan refugees, especially folks who served with or cooperated with Americans.
   There is historical precedent for this, notably Vietnam and Cambodia. To abandon them to the vagaries of a new regime can be dangerous. Moreover, many of these newcomers will take low wage, low skill, low prestige jobs, doing the scut work that many young Americans pass up.

   Meanwhile, Washington is working on a plan to provide a road to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants already here, who were brought to America as children. Should this be done?
   Consider: Is it right to blame children for the activities, legal or otherwise, of their parents? This program will offer amnesty and a path to citizenship for those brought here as children and know no other country. They are, in fact, Americans in every way except but in law. And many are well educated, skilled and productive. To send them "home" to a place they've never been before would be unfair, counterproductive and cruel.
   In addition, there's a move afoot to allow more workers in, to fill the demand for low-skill, less-educated, low-wage workers, because the supply of native-born Americans willing to take menial jobs is short. Therefore, newcomers are arriving to fill these positions.
   The Law of Supply and Demand has not been repealed.

   At the same time, Washington has inaugurated a program to issue visas and a fast track to citizenship to highly skilled professionals and to investors who lay out as much as $1 million in startup firms that employ at least ten Americans.
   The demand for well educated workers with special skills is high, and the supply of available citizens is low, so competition is driving this program.
   To claim that every job taken by a newcomer is a job lost by an American is not only too simplistic, but also untrue. Statistical data and studies, even those done by anti-immigration groups, back this up.
   Don't believe it? Do your own research. The Internet is a wonderful thing.