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The Coming Immigration Conflagration
I have mixed feelings aout workers coming into the country from Mexico. One hand, these people are being used as cheap labor (remember slavery?). On the other hand, the workers being displaced are American-born workers on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
Raising fuel costs may create a situation where the cost of shipping products overseas or by air from foreign countries with cheap labor is higher than manufacturing the product in the US.
Obviously that would require sustained increasing fuel prices over a sustained period. If that situation does occur and manufacturing jobs return to the US, what would happen if companies attempted to use non-US citizens as the manufacturing workforce.? In my opinion, the foreign workers would be out of luck in access to those jobs.
As manufacturing jobs increased in the US, foreign workers may face less pressure US born workers who feel more economically secure. Another possibility is that US born workers without the skills to find employment in manufacturing may be angered as they see fellow citizens gaining as they remain stagnant or fall behind.
Those unskilled US workers may demand that foreign born workers be shown the door and press the government for stricter enforcement of immigration laws.
If manufacturing jobs are not available to foreign workers and the government has to address the concerns of US born citizens who feel left behind economically as fuel prices rise, illegal aliens may face even more pressure than they do now.
The question will be what fuel price will serve as the tipping point to ignite US based manufacturing.
Comments (6)
It would have to be a very high fuel price indeed. Labor is a big chunk of manufacturing costs.
I suspect a more important factor will be rising wages overseas -- in e.g. Mexico and China.
But that is also likely to reduce the motivation for illegal immigration.
In short, I don't think the scenario you're envisioning is a very likely one.
May 30, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
You may be right. However, as I see raising fuel costs impacting travel, food, clothing, etc it does become a question as to if shipping will be severely impacted.
Gas is currently $9.00 a gallon in England. would that be a tipping point for shipping?
May 30, 2008 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you really believe that people coming here of their own volition and free will is the same as people who were bought & sold, mistreated and dehumanized, and forced to work unceasingly without any basic freedoms?
May 30, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
No argument. The concept of cheap labor and what the morality of the times allows was reason for raising slavery.
Illegal aliens are at the mercy of their employers. If a paycheck is shorted, who would the illegal go to to resolve the dispute?
May 30, 2008 11:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
The situation might be more similar to african workers from other countries who went to South Africa during apartheid because there were "good" jobs in the mining industry.
May 30, 2008 11:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
The bottom line is simple: illegal aliens are employed by entities that need to be held criminally liable for undermining American workers. Period. My home state has one of the highest growing populations of so-called "undocumented workers". The unemployment rate for skilled and unskilled citizens continues to rise in direct correlation to the influx. We're not just talking about migrant labor or the third shift at the local chicken processing plant.
As a largely non-union right-to-work state, North Carolina's lax immigration enforcement allowed illegal immigrants to displace legal workers in construction and the skilled trades. Folks with HVAC skills don't exactly make chump change, either. Let's not even get into how many people intentionally overstay their student and H-1B visas. When a certain major food processor in Siler City was forced to lay off hundreds of staff earlier this month, the owner blamed the high cost of corn for biodiesel production as the reason for the decision.
None of the stories circulated by the national wire services mentioned that he and former Pilgrim's Pride human resources staff were investigated and charged by the Justice Department for running a major illegal immigration ring in Texas and other states. After the feds cracked down on the perps, people started fleeing on buses headed back to Chihuahua in droves. Guess who took the place of the former employees? It's amazing how quickly a company can hire citizens or valid green-card holders when no other options exist.
May 31, 2008 12:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
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