Redirecting Our Energy

by Leigh Graham · 2009-02-16 06:00:00 UTC
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A week and a half ago we had a spirited discussion about scapegoating and victim blaming.  Yesterday, the NY Times ran an editorial that succinctly gets at the misguided hostility towards immigrants and undocumented workers flaring up (more than usual) during this economic crisis:

Undocumented immigrants make up only about one-twentieth of the work force but are overwhelmingly represented in the most dangerous, dirty and low-paying jobs. Driving out every undocumented worker, a temptation in hard times, clears the way for laid-off Americans to pick lettuce, wash dishes and cars, and wait all morning outside Home Depot for a contractor to drive up.

[snip]

There is a better strategy that hews to core American values and common sense. It is to support workers — documented or not. It is to fight back against abuses that make wages and job conditions worse for everyone. It is to throw light on off-the-books labor, and on the tax-cheating businesses that have exploited it for too long.

[snip]

Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, argues that current law creates “an artificially low wage floor” that actually increases demand for undocumented workers.

The editorial details efforts by unions to organize immigrant workers. And NY State is now working with immigrant employees to crack down on abusive employers.  More like this, please.

Photo is from the H.R. 4437 protest march in Chicago, March2006.  For more on immigration and social change, check out Dave's blog.

Leigh Graham
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