Stealing jobs?

Question

I've heard a lot of talk from american conservatives about how illegal mexican immigrants are 'stealing american jobs'. I just wanted to ask, how exactly does one go about 'stealing' a job? If the job is a mutually consensual contract between the employer and the employee, and an illegal immigrant cannot get it without the employer making a voluntary contract with them, then how can it be 'stolen'? It never made much sense to me, so I'm wondering how those who talk about it support their statements, in both philosophical and economic terms.

For the record, I'm not a liberal or a democrat myself, I'm canadian and politically I'm more of a libertarian than anything else.

Answer 1

American liberals will say the same thing.

The gist is that many American citizens don't believe that immigrants, legal or otherwise, are entitled to work in the US; that what we have is for us alone.

The jobs are stolen because some immigrants will undercut Americans by offering to work longer hours for lower pay.  It's really not stolen, this is just Darwinism.  Most citizens don't want to compete with immigrants for labor because they don't want to give up their lifestyles.

Answer 2

its because they work for peanuts, cram 5 families into a house and live on rice and beans, then they claim they are doing the work the whites wont do, heck i used to pick pears, but now they have been taking jobs from the legal hispanics as well

Answer 3

It's the illegality of the action that gets their dander up.  In the US, we have regulations stipulating how much employees must be paid, how many hours they can work before being paid overtime, etc.  Hiring an illegal immigrant allowes employers to skirt these regulatons, much to their own financial benefit.

In theory, if the illegal immigrants weren't here, the employers would have to hire American workers and abide by American labor laws.

Answer 4

No one can steal a job when it is given to the lowest bidder. American employers need to cut costs on the production of their goods. One of the easiest ways is to hire non-union workers, who cannot complain either because of their illegal status or the necessity of putting food in their families bellies. The employers deduct state and federal taxes and yet do not pay workmans compensation, medical insurance or retirement contributions for these workers. They don't have to worry about equal pay for equal work and in some cases child labor laws.  If the Immigration Laws THAT ARE ALREADY IN PLACE where upheld by the US Government, employers would not be allowed to do this.

Answer 5

"Stealing jobs" is a way to blame someone else for a lack of education. Illegal immigrants do not speak English and take the minimum wage for labor. Unemployment in Phoenix is less than 4%, anyone who wants to work here will, they will not however get 17.00 an hour to make beds or work in fast food if they are willing to take that kind of work which they are not. I fail to see what they eat has to do with this question or even what it has to do with the subject but believe that statement reveals their true agenda.

Answer 6

You  will understand when things get so bad here in the States that millions of us migrate north to Canada and steal your jobs.  

"Stealing" jobs suggests that a person was willing to work for much less money, with much worse working conditions, and oftentimes getting paid under the table.  In Union work places, the term "Scab" comes to mind.  But when the jobs are being taken by illegals we say they steal the job because if they didn't take the job, the employer would be forced to pay a wage high enough to attract a legal worker.

Answer 7

1)Illegals can NOT enter into a contract for employment as they are illegal.

2)The majority of illegals do NOT pay taxes.

3)The majority of illegals will work for less than that allowed by law

4)Employers do not need to pay taxes on illegal labor

5)Employers do not need insurance (if an illegal dies in your field = fertilizer[the farmer isn't going to call the cops is he?])

6)If an American can not compete with the criminal acts of illegals and those who hire illegal it is the same as stealing. You are taking something away from someone else by illegal means.

Answer 8

It's not so much a matter of "stealing" jobs, although it can be considered that since they have no legal basis to be employed in the US. The problem is wage depression which results from an influx of workers with low expectations. The fault lies with both the illegal alien influx and the employers who hire them.

For example, the average hourly wage in Chicago meat-packing plants used to be over $17/hr. No longer as a result of hiring illegal aliens. The amnesty of 1986 also contributed to wage depression as the newly legalized were hired at lower wages than Americans were being paid.

The current enforcement efforts are working. The Rocky Mountain News reported that in Greeley, Colo., "the line of applicants hoping to fill jobs vacated by undocumented workers taken away by immigration agents at the Swift & Co. meat-processing plant . . . was out the door." New England Cable News reported that only after a raid on a plant making leather goods for the military in New Bedford, Mass., were Americans and legal immigrants able to get hired.

When illegal aliens were removed from a Crider Poultry plant in Stillmore, Ga., the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Wall Street Journal documented the benefits to local workers. The plant raised wages significantly, began offering free shuttles from nearby towns and provided free rooms in a company-owned dormitory. For the first time, Crider sought applicants from the state unemployment office and began hiring probationers and men from a local homeless mission. And, as the Journal noted, "for the first time since significant numbers of Latinos began arriving in Stillmore in the late 1990s, the plant's processing lines were made up predominantly of African Americans."

Answer 9

Employers are knowingly hiring illegals to save money.   They can pay the illegals less money because they don't pay taxes, social security or medical benefits from their paychecks like Americans do.

Some say this is a smart business move -- to cut costs, but many out there think that it is just wrong that companies hire illegals and not American citizens!!!

Answer 10

and they are forcing them to speak spanish too, they just repeat any argument, it doesnt matter if it is stupid, false, racist, xenophobic, unfair etc etc etc, their motto is ¡slander.......... that something remains ¡¡¡¡¡¡

Answer 11

Well I am a liberal/Democrat w.e you wanna call me, and yes, they are stealing American jobs on a daily basis. A lot of times employers hire illegal aliens with the knowledge that the workers are not hire-able. They do this to pay lower wages that do not have to even be reported, since they aren't paying any taxes. By having illegal workers from any country working domestic jobs and sending money back to their home country, that's a direct drain on our general economy. Do you think it is OK for illegal workers to work the same job next to an American citizen and actually make more because they are evading taxes?

This country has come a far ways from where our morals and standards once stood..and we need to get it back. It's embarrassing that we borrow almost a billion dollars a day from China, while our own money is getting pulled south of the border and elsewhere.

Answer 12

I think it's a cop out that lazy people use not to work.  Immigrants take the hardest jobs ... they work in the sun during the summer to pick our fruits and vegetables.  They work in very unskilled labor areas because they don't have the means to go to school and educate themselves.  We do have the opportunities to study and better ourselves,  and the ones that don't take this opportunity are just plain lazy. Can you really see this bunch of lazy people actually taking those exhausting unskilled jobs!?  I'd say ... NO!  Did you know that they are not even treated right?  They are often under blackmail ... if they don't do this or that they will be deported.  

On top of that, all those whiners that complain about the illegals also whine about produce prices ... not even realizing that they're much cheaper than they would be if Americans had been paid to do the veggie and fruit picking ... at a much higher rate per hour, with medical covered, and even a retirement funding.  Do you know why they complain?  Because they're racist, and their bigotry just kills their brain cells ... They don't think beyond being mad at a race of people for being that race!  By the way, I'm also a libertarian, and I'm white ... with a high education, and yes, as an American citizen, I had the opportunity to work and study (as an "A" student, by the way)  just like everyone else who is legally here does have that same opportunity.

----By the way, it's not true that illegals don't pay taxes. They are taken from their paycheck all the time, and then, they don't get their refunds ... because they're illegal and afraid to claim it!

Answer 13

There is no such thing as stolen job.

Answer 14

Its a crime to be in our country illegally.

It's a crime to work in our country while in an illegal status.

It's a crime to hire illegal criminal aliens.

In other words, illegal criminal aliens are being hired and working at jobs that only American citizens and legal immigrants are LEGALLY entitled to.  

ANY MORE QUESTIONS?

Answer 15

The Americans stole their country from Mexico. So who cares about them. Theyare mean evil people and they don't belong here. I wish they would go back to Europe and Africa adn Germany and France.

Answer 16

I'm sorry you have to go through all these answers to make up your mind about the unfairness of some people that think that crime is:- working anywhere,- because someone else greed's is in the way. Employers are the same some are greedy, some more then others, some just look for the best way to make a fair living... and that's just part of this planet's way of leaving where there's good and there's evil, we shall choose what's best FOR those that surround us and not vices like "we shall choose the best FROM those that surround us".  Avoid the 7 capital sins and you'll live the best life there is.

Answer 17

Yeah... what the other monkey said...

Answer 18

The predominance of immigrant employees in the hotel industry in some major cities creates the impression that without immigrants there would be no one to do those jobs. But if true, how is it that in low‑immigrant regions of the country, such as the Midwest, hotels are staffed quite adequately by Americans?

As for fast‑food restaurants, a major factor in the growth of that industry has been the increasing number of low‑skilled people, many of them immigrants, who have made industries based on a low‑skilled work force a more viable investment. Entrepreneurs choose businesses based partly on the skills of the available labor market. If we had had a more highly educated labor force, entrepreneurs would have developed more of the kinds of businesses that use highly‑skilled workers instead of low‑skilled workers. Instead of the multiplication of fast‑food restaurants across the land, which has not exactly raised the quality of American life, we might have had a greater number of real restaurants with real cooks and waiters serving real food.

Answer 19

VERY WELL SAID BEACHGIRL!! I LOVE IT! FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO SEES THE TRUTH AND ITSNT AFRAID TO SAY IT.  I AGREE WITH YOU 200%!!