http://www.bendib.com/newones/2007/may/small/5-7-Wanted-Immigrant-Labor.jpg
This blog post is in response to Ingrid Yau’s blog post analyzing this opinion piece from the New York Times, which argues that Americans have gotten softer over the years and are therefore are less willing to work the same jobs as they have in previous decades/centuries. As a result, immigrant workers fulfill can fulfill the need for hard labor that Americans are unwilling to fill. Through the discussion of an anecdote from the comments of the original article, Ingrid concludes that immigrants to America do not actually take jobs from Americans because “even the most unskilled American worker wouldn’t want a job that is physically demanding” and that “the generation nowadays just cannot stand boring assembly-line jobs.”
As an American who is entirely for increased immigration, I disagree with the conclusion Ingrid draws from the article. While it is true that the number of Americans who work jobs requiring manual labor has decreased, so have the number of jobs requiring manual labor as the US has transitioned from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. Furthermore, many assembly-line jobs have been replaced through the use of machinery and robotics to automate the process. Finally, although the story of “pooch43” in the comments is an interesting one, for every story of people avoiding a job requiring hard labor, there are just as many of people doing incredibly difficult work in order to make ends meet.
Works Cited
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/10/09/what-happened-to-the-american-work-ethic-2/hard-work-is-what-immigrants-do?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A14%22%7D
