In response to an article I wrote in defense of immigrants, a reader chastised me for suggesting that
there were many not-so-hot jobs that native-born workers were unwilling to do. Because of the terrible job market, he had applied for restaurant jobs only to be turned down because these jobs were taken by immigrants. But he was willing to do anything, and what I said was neither fair nor accurate with respect to a lot of "American" workers. This was such a crock that I wrote back and asked him why he hadn't been applying for these jobs when times were better. Kitchen jobs like prep cooks and dishwashers and front of the house jobs like bussers have been done by immigrants for a very long time. They are hard and poorly paid jobs (wage theft is very common too) with long hours and often nasty bosses. Not many of us would last an hour in these jobs. And we would flee them as soon as we could. Immigrants don't often have this choice. When times are good, most people don't give a damn about such workers and barely notice they exist. They ignore the person bussing their tables, and they never see the kitchen workers, dirty and sweaty, nervously having a smoke in the alleys behind the restaurants. Yet they have the nerve to say that these workers are taking thier jobs. And I wonder how many "Americans" would work 100 hours a week driving rich people to work as "black car" drivers, earning, after expenses, about $2 an hour, like so many Indian and Pakistani workers. That a well-to-do former advisor to Ronald Reagan would blame immigrants for the woes of workers is both disgusting and disgraceful. And I'd like to see Mr. Roberts or Rush Limbaugh or that piece of shit Lou Dobbs do a day of farm labor or line cooking or factory work.
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