http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/13/navarrette.immigrants/There are still plenty of illegal immigrants in the United States who have families here, and they aren't leaving. And apparently those who are here are, because of the bad economy, more threatening than ever to those low-skilled U.S. workers who have to compete with them.
And that brings me to what really bothers me about this controversy. It's a sad state of affairs when people who were born in this, the freest and most prosperous country on Earth -- instantly becoming U.S. citizens, no less -- with a free education and every other opportunity to improve their lives find themselves afraid to compete with a group of people who don't have legal status, often can't speak English, and usually have no more than a 6th-grade education.
My fellow Americans, stop your trembling. Show some dignity.
If you don't like competing with illegal immigrants, try making better choices. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Turn off those TV shows that constantly bash globalization and immigration. Go back to school. Get more training. Move out of the comfort zone of your hometown to take a job in another state, if necessary. Take responsibility for your own life. And stop thinking the world owes you a living.That was the "tough love" message I shared with the construction worker who called into a Las Vegas, Nevada, radio show about a year ago to complain that construction firms on the Strip were paying the same wage they were 20 years earlier. The caller blamed illegal immigrants, who he said were keeping wages low.
It's interesting that he didn't blame the companies that employed the firms, or the firms themselves. And of course,
he never thought to look in the mirror and blame himself for not taking steps to improve his skills in the last 20 years. Maybe he could have gone into a different line of work long ago. He decided not to.more from douchebag Navarette at the link...
So the construction worker, 20 years ago, should have realized that he would have to compete with people who would be willing to work for half of what a skilled carpenter should make. It's his own fault that he decided to pursue a career as a tradesman rather than going to college so he could do something productive like, say, write bullshit columns that blame people for trying to make an honest living.
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