About Those Jobs That Americans Won’t Do

In his Washington Post column about the fallout from ICE raids of a chicken processing plant in Mississippi, Henry Olsen provides support for a point I’ve been making for some time:

Such alleged flouting of the law is not a victimless crime. Each of the plants is located in cities or counties with high levels of poverty and extremely low incomes. There were plenty of workers available who probably would have loved to get jobs at the plants.

Jasper County, the location of one of the plants owned by Peco Foods, is a case in point. Jasper’s unemployment rate this June was 7.4 percent, more than twice the national average. A majority-black county, Jasper County has a median household income of only about $35,000 and a 23.8 percent poverty rate. Those who live there need those jobs, but the employer’s alleged scheme denied them that basic chance.

The other plant locations have similar demographics. Canton, Miss., is nearly 70 percent African American, with a 31.4 percent poverty rate for blacks. Scott County is 38 percent black, has a median household income of around $33,000 and a poverty rate more than 21 percent. Leake County is 42 percent black, has a median household income just under $36,000 and a poverty rate of nearly 22 percent. Pelahatchie, a town in Rankin County, is 40 percent black with a median income of just $35,000. Sense a pattern?

Given these figures, the economic impact of illegal immigration becomes clear. The Pew Research Center estimates that more than 7.5 million undocumented immigrants are in the U.S. labor force. Assuming their unemployment rate is roughly equal to the 3.7 percent national average, that means more than 7 million jobs are held by undocumented workers. That can’t help but depress wages and opportunities for native-born American. As the Mississippi figures show, those victims of illegal immigration are often exactly the poor people of color whose continued poverty is a national tragedy.

In interviewing the many applicants for the jobs recently made available by the ICE raids, reports I’ve read say that the employers are requiring six months of experience in deboning chickens which sounds like a good idea. I do wonder how they verified the experience of the illegal migrants they hired previously.

The point here is that illegal migrant workers are displacing native black workers. That has been the case for the 40 years we’ve had mass immigration from Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Why the rate of black youth unemployment is so high is no mystery. It’s just a problem that can’t be solved without border control.

4 comments… add one
  • Grey Shambler Link

    If the plant was withholding SSI and Medicare and not sending the money in with a valid Social Security number on the form, they would be breaking the law.
    If they withheld that and didn’t send it in with a valid S.S. number, they would have broken the law.
    If theses workers were not covered under workmen’s compensation insurance, the company would be in violation of the law.
    Should be easy pickings for Federal prosecutors, and by the way, where’s the Southern Poverty Law Center on this?

  • TastyBits Link

    … requiring six months of experience in deboning chickens which sounds like a good idea. […]

    It seems like a method to induce a labor shortage, but if it is a good idea, the labor shortage can be eliminated by using an ultra modern factory.

    I watch How It’s Made on the Science Channel, and I am amazed at what has been automated. I wonder why the manual steps have not been automated, yet.

  • I wonder why the manual steps have not been automated, yet.

    Because as long as there’s a reliable supply of motivated workers who won’t ask for raises, why make the capital investments necessary for automation?

  • TastyBits Link

    After using high speed cameras for quality control, puff’s of air to blow the rejects off the assembly line, automated packaging, a worker will do the boxing and stacking by hand.

    The ‘manufacturing is never coming back’ crowd should really watch that show. Compared to ultra modern manufacturing, the 1970’s were closer to Ford’s 1920 assembly line – workers beating fenders into shape.

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