Strenuous manual labor consists of long hours, small wage,
with no breaks. These jobs are filled by
thousands of immigrants’ working diligently without complaint. From
Businessweek is an article called WhyAmericans Won’t Do Dirty Jobs, the new immigration law in Alabama has truly
awakened the importance of an immigrant.
The new law recognized as HB56 is forcing police to ask workers if they
are here illegally in the United States and can deport if found. With this new law in action, it has made
thousands of illegal immigrants quit leaving behind businesses without any
workers.
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| Photo Courtesy to BusinessInsider |
Many
opinions including Republican Governor Robert Bentley think without the
immigrants taking up work, it will open up spots for the unemployed citizens. The only catch they didn’t see coming is that
the grueling jobs are way too below anyone’s pride. Americans don’t want to fill in for the jobs
because of the obvious reasons like no benefits, long hours, and too demanding. For example, at the J&J Farms thirty out
of thirty-five employees were migrant workers, working there for years. Now with the new law HB56, it has left Chad
Smith (employer) without any employees to continue the tough business. He has
put out an advertisement on the radio for open jobs but fifteen to twenty
showed up and the next day most of them quit.
My point of view on the new bill is that it is
a huge mistake. Furthermore, most illegal or legal immigrants live in low-income
homes and sacrifice more than imaginable to work in the United States. The dollar compared to their country’s
exchange is worth much more making it easier to send money for their family. Additionally,
immigrants have been through worse jobs without getting paid and don’t see
these jobs as for “slaves”. The immigrants traveled here to be part of the
country and will take any opportunity to make money. This including bending down to pick out fruits
in the sun for ten hours, everyday. It
is difficult for Americans to comply with these labor jobs while living in a
more demanding pay for a household. People can also be looked down upon society if
people were employees. They want benefits, retirement, and also breaks during
work. The farmers can not compete or
give out these following items listed because they are already losing business
and they would have to spend more cash to hire a single person.
Similarly,
in the memoire The Distance Between Us, the
whole story started out because of a job.
Her parents wanted and needed to find work in the U.S. It may not have been the dream job the
parents fantasied about at the United States, but from their perspective the
dollar is worth much more than pesos.
Making hard jobs like manual labor an open door for. “The year before, the peso was devalued 45
percent to the US dollar. It was the beginning of the worst recession Mexico
had in fifty years” (Reyna 6). The
following quote is an example of the need and great extent for dollars. If working ten hours everyday for dollars,
any determined immigrant will do it.
At the end
of the day, employers are losing money and are empty of workers for grueling manual
labor. There are millions of unemployed
Americans and Immigrants but the only difference between the two groups of
people is the will to work in almost any condition. Can people put their pride aside and work
instead of sitting around? Will the new
law in action be rewrote because of the numerous demands for employees that no
one will fill (excluding the immigrants)?
Maybe the business owners can raise the wage a little higher and add
small benefits in order to have some traction. I think a compromise is to allow
some Americans to work in manual labor but leave some room for immigrants
too. The problem is if Alabama does
terminate the law will the immigrants back will come back to their jobs or leave
Alabama without any workers forever?
Work Cited
Renya Grande. The Distance Between Us. New York:
Washington Square Press, 2012.
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