A RAT IN a laboratory Skinner box inadvertantly steps on lever and a food pellet drops out of nowhere. He quickly learns to depress the lever for the reward. A religious group from Holland came to America and found they could practice their religion without persecution. They sent word back. Young men from some of the German states came to America and found they didn’t have to spend 20 years in the king’s army. They sent word back. Some farmers from Ireland came to America and found they could acquire land after only a year’s saving. And they sent word back. And many quickly learn there is opportunity for land, and freedom of religion and from military bondage. And they came to America.
All of this is explained quite adequately by BF Sinner – the father of the branch of psychology known as Behaviorism, or Learning Theory. There are millions of undocumented migrant workers in the US because of the attractions they have learned from their cousin or uncle or brother who came to the US and got jobs and made a better life. Either by staying in the US or sending money back to their home country or both. Like the rat in the Skinner box, they learned that coming to the US leads to reward. So come they do.
And unlike the immigrants from previous centuries, today’s immigrants are needed and wanted as well as rewarded for coming. They are wanted by big business and small business. They are gladly hired for agricultural work, planting and harvesting; construction trades, laborers, painters, roofers, equipment drivers, and cement form scrapers, (like I did once, ugh) ; hospitality, maids, servers, cooks, desk clerks, janitors; and other trades. They are all wanted. And like the rat in the Skinner box, the illegals get rewarded for their endeavors.
I was surprised to find how many undocumented immigrants live and work in NYC. According to the Fiscal Policy Institute’s study, illegal aliens are working as cooks (21,000), janitors and cleaners (19,000), construction laborers (17,000), taxi drivers and chauffers, (11,000), automotive service (5000), stock clerks (7000) and many other lines of work. When he was mayor, Michael Bloomberg noted, “Although [illegal aliens] broke the law by illegally crossing our borders or over-staying their visas and our businesses broke the law by employing them, our city’s economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported.”
The “labor force participation rate” is a measure of what percentage of a certain group has paid employment. The Fiscal Policy Institute study found that illegal aliens had a 70% participation rate whereas native born workers had a 60% participation rate and all foreign born workers 64%. These figures go far to dispell the myth that illegal aliens come for wellfare payments – which they cannot get.
It is incorrect that undocumented immigrants are needed because “Americans won’t do the work (that the immigrants do”). America’s labor force has always been hardworking and willing to do anything they need to do to earn a living, no matter how difficult. But- why should a young American choose to pick vegetables in the hot sun all day for 10 dollars an hour when they could work at McDonalds and earn 16 dollars an hour. The agricultural jobs and factory and cleaning jobs are simply the ones that immigrants can do that may not require the social skills or English language skills but are sufficient and needed for many employers.
So, the illegal labor is needed and wanted in the US. The migrants are attracted here like the rat in the Skinner box is attracted to the food producing lever, and like the early seekers of land and freedom were attracted to our shores. But now Trump’s henchman Miller is excoriating the ICE commanders for falling short of the administration’s goal of removing 3000 people suspected of being illegals per day. What is wrong with this picture? Is undocumented labor truly working against the needs of the national economy? Of course if Donald Trump truly wanted to illiminate illegal migrants, he could do it simply by cracking down hard, jailing and fining employers who hire the illegals, which is illegal. The rat in the Skinner box stops pressing the lever when he stops getting the food pellet. The illegals would stop coming if there were no jobs open to them.
But that wouldn’t help the economy dependent on this labor.
Now, despite all this, here is something I don’t think many Americans know. There is such a thing as a guest worker visa in the US. In other words the Government DOES recognize the need for foreign workers.
But hows that working out? Acknowledged: There’s a need for guest workers. Remedy: Guest worker program. Evaluation of efficacy of that program: It does not significantly reduce the immigration of many illegals to the US to find work.
The reasons for this are obvious. 1 The bureaucratic hoops employers must navigate. They must apply to two different agencies and give evidence they cannot find domestic workers. 2 The employer must provide free housing, which is a regulation considerate to the guest workers. But without enforcement of laws banning the hiring of undocumented workers, the employers can hire the illegals and forego the expense of housing. 3 There are a limited number of visas granted. The non-farming visas are limited to 68,000 yearly. There are fifty times that number of illegals working in non-farming positions. 4 The visa applicants must apply at the American embassy in their home country. The average wait time for the response of possible sponsors is 7 months. 5 The visas are temporary, usually 3-10 months, and the workers must return home to renew the visas.
So here are the factors. First, there are 6 million undocumented migrants in the US illegally and an essential art of the labor force.
The employers who hire them are not prosecuted for illegally hiring, therefore an inducement for migrants to come and seek jobs. Many illegals are quite willing to work under the conditions experienced working illegally, even though the conditions are inferior to those of legitimate guest workers – so they keep coming.
The trump administration has vilified illegal aliens, calling them rapists and murderers. Because of this demonization, undocumented workers are harrassed and discriminated against. And by one author, have been cheated out of 1 billion dollars in the NYC building trades alone. The illegals actually have a lower rate of criminality than the general public.
So here are possible actions that may mitigate the situation where the country’s industry is dependent on people doing illegal things.
1 Allow for the registration of all undocumented migrants as guest workers who, with their employers verification, can prove they are gainfully employed. This would require an administration that would utilize local employment agencies, county and municipal.
2 Employers would be required to report any change in the status of the guest workers he hires, and report any changes in the need for workers in his company. They would be held liable for hiring migrants without papers and fraudulent reporting.
3 Commisions would have to work out what minimum wage, and what benefits, such as free housing, would not give preference to guest workers over native workers that would want the jobs.
4 These are simply suggestions and possibly viable ideas. I do not pretend to have all the answers. But any change woud probably be an improvement. The situation that, as ex-mayor Michel Bloomburg said, “the (New Yok) city’s economy would collapse if they were all deported” seems non-viable. The fact that undocumented workers are both necessary to the economy and a political scapegoat for the Trump administration is a conundrum that can and should be solved.
What are your ideas on the subject?
\
