<$BlogRSDUrl$>

My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-04-04

RE: Reality Check

A very smart friend of mine, who is in the business of hiring and has had a number of immigrants working for him, has weighed in on my post from two nights ago.

While he disagrees with me about the volatility of the imigrant population and their willingness/ability to strike for better wages, the most interesting part of his correspondence is about the nature of the immigrant worker he has come across. The key points:

:most work very hard, often two jobs, for as long as they can to earn their goal
:most, once attaining their goal, which is buying their own house in Mexico, move back with their families
:anchor babies don't particularly change this scenario, though they do use American services while here

And then his prescription for solving the "illegal" problem:

:enforce current employment laws vigorously
:create a worker program that allows temporary work (say, 3-5 years) without possibility of citizenship
:don't allow "anchor baby" citizenship

These are all ideas for dealing with those who are already here, and also for future immigrants who come here. It would seem that any program associated with this begins with closing the border.

My friend is smart. He speaks from experience and from the reality within the business community, and he has changed my mind--a little bit. On reflection, this all seems SO common sense, and reflects what the polls see as the reasonable solution, that it makes me wonder why the hell the politicians struggle with this.

Oh, wait. . .
Posted by: Michael / 4/04/2006 12:09:00 AM

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?