When times are economically bad, the first thing people complain about is of all the jobs that are being stolen by illegal immigrants. It's a tired argument that causes me to roll my eyes back when I hear it because there isn't a single statistic that backs up that claim.So I wasn't at all shocked when I read this article on MSNBC about the large amount of Americans who do NOT apply for seasonal farm work, in spite of their squawking about the absence of jobs.
Farmers earlier this year posted 1,160 field worker positions that specifically targeted U.S. Citizens through employment offices in California, Texas, Nevada, and Arizona.
Only 233 applied.
The UFW (United Farm Workers union) launched a similar program that attracted 8,600 applicants, but only 7 workers were actually placed. One nursery owner who participated in the program said that not only did the U.S. citizens that he hired complain about how grueling the work was, but that there was a high absentee rate and that some of those hired were actually found to be putting plants into the ground upside down.
Oh, that is rich.
No gringo is willing to do that kind of work. My father worked for a farming company, and each summer starting when I was 14 my brother and I would plant potatoes in the grueling sun from 630am unil 530pm, no easy thing...you have to give these people credit for being so determined and hard working.
ReplyDeletelol my sentiments, exactly.
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