Kathianne
12-22-2008, 08:08 AM
Seems they will when it seems the best alternative:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122973612592523337-lMyQjAxMDI4MjI5MDcyMzA2Wj.html
U.S. Workers Crowding Out Immigrant Laborers
By MIRIAM JORDAN
LOS ANGELES -- A year ago, a day-laborer center adjacent to a Home Depot here teemed with Latin American immigrants who showed up and found a sure day's work painting, gardening or hauling.
These days, more than immigrants are packing the Hollywood Community Job Center: Unemployed Americans are joining them. There's little work for anybody.
"Everybody is coming to look for work," says Rene Jemio, outreach coordinator for the hiring hall. "It's not just your average immigrant anymore; it's African-Americans and whites, too."
For the first time in a decade, unskilled immigrants are competing with Americans for work. And evidence is emerging that tens of thousands of Hispanic immigrants are withdrawing from the labor market as U.S. workers crowd them out of potential jobs. At least some of the foreigners are returning home.
"We see competition from more nonimmigrant workers," says Abel Valenzuela, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who studies day laborers. "Employers are also paying less than in previous years," he says....
The probable outcome to this is that when the economy picks up, which it will at some point, these positions will have to pay more to meet the demand to keep them filled. This was always the point many of us were making about illegal immigrants, they were getting screwed and forcing down wages to begin with.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122973612592523337-lMyQjAxMDI4MjI5MDcyMzA2Wj.html
U.S. Workers Crowding Out Immigrant Laborers
By MIRIAM JORDAN
LOS ANGELES -- A year ago, a day-laborer center adjacent to a Home Depot here teemed with Latin American immigrants who showed up and found a sure day's work painting, gardening or hauling.
These days, more than immigrants are packing the Hollywood Community Job Center: Unemployed Americans are joining them. There's little work for anybody.
"Everybody is coming to look for work," says Rene Jemio, outreach coordinator for the hiring hall. "It's not just your average immigrant anymore; it's African-Americans and whites, too."
For the first time in a decade, unskilled immigrants are competing with Americans for work. And evidence is emerging that tens of thousands of Hispanic immigrants are withdrawing from the labor market as U.S. workers crowd them out of potential jobs. At least some of the foreigners are returning home.
"We see competition from more nonimmigrant workers," says Abel Valenzuela, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who studies day laborers. "Employers are also paying less than in previous years," he says....
The probable outcome to this is that when the economy picks up, which it will at some point, these positions will have to pay more to meet the demand to keep them filled. This was always the point many of us were making about illegal immigrants, they were getting screwed and forcing down wages to begin with.