Immigrants, menial jobs and equal rights
20 June 2021 By Abiodun Giwa
Mayor De Blasio announces $40million city's support to improve life for security guards in housing projects
Some politicians often like to talk about why they support unrestricted immigration and willingness to have an amnesty for undocumented immigrants. It is the reason for the current discussion about an open border amid already about 11 million undocumented in the country. The debate is about immigration and the country's population, fiscal issue, the budget, and ensuring the government does not lose count of the number of people in the country.
Politicians in favor of unrestricted immigration believe that since natural Americans do not like doing menial jobs, immigrants who do not discriminate against menial jobs should not be discouraged from coming into the country. These politicians make a grave mistake because many immigrant Americans interviewed for this piece say they have worked with natural Americans in some menial jobs. Therefore, to say Americans are not in menial employment does not represent the truth but a political statement.
It can mean that if people dislike menial jobs as end-of-the-road employment; and would not do such jobs for a lifetime mean they do not do it to survive before navigating their ways to better-paying jobs. Immigrants do the same - do menial jobs and later move to better jobs they may have been prospecting while doing menial jobs or after their American education. No one would like to be on meat-packing jobs, security jobs, and such jobs that do not pay living wages forever. To say that immigrants want to do such jobs that Americans would not do is saying that immigrants are hewers of wood and drawers of water. They are not.
America is a land of opportunity. The chances of success do not beg people to grab them. People struggle their way to gain them. It is what has made America a land of struggle and success for those who know what it means to work hard and succeed. Americans also struggle for a better life, just as immigrants. There is no special treatment for anyone here. Of course, fortune and misfortune have not seized playing their roles in the affairs of men and women.
For politicians to talk glibly about ending discrimination, unaware the public is conscious they have seized on an opportunity of an unacceptable situation to push their political agenda by promoting discrimination they claim to be working against begs for a better explanation. If indeed any government is working against discrimination, wages inequality should the concern of the leaders. Why must be unfortunate to be at the bottom of the wage structure and lack benefits? People avoid end of the road jobs because of poor wage and lack of benefits. It is not a delight for either citizens or immigrants. Working menial jobs is part of the struggle for the American Dream It is risky to fail to struggle for it, whether one is an American or an immigrant. The result of non-struggle would be being left behind or reliance on government assistance. And government assistance hardly turns into blessings.
This brings to mind, Mayor De Blasio's revelation of $40million released by his administration for the benefit of security guards in the city's housing projects - on a third party contract. How the money released by the city for the poor guards is to be utilized has not been explained. Would the money go to the guards' employer or the union representing the guards? Would the money make it possible for the guards to realize the objective of a pay raise for which they been seeking a new contract?
Discrimination is unacceptable. And America has done everything humanly possible to contain and control its spread based on country's history. It is not only in America that discrimination exists and creating enormous problems for governance. There is hardly a society or family where discrimination does not exist among siblings. It is everywhere. It is the cause of the societal classes of the upper class, the middle class, and the poor class. Give encouraging pay and benefit to those end-of-the-jobs and see how people (irrespective of status) would swarm them.
America has done more than any other country regarding civil rights towards equal rights for all, bridging the gaps between classes and creating opportunities through generous access to education and ending discrimination in work places, than any other nation. Give encouraging pay and benefit to those end-of-the-jobs and see how people (irrespective of status) would swarm them.
Politicians in favor of unrestricted immigration believe that since natural Americans do not like doing menial jobs, immigrants who do not discriminate against menial jobs should not be discouraged from coming into the country. These politicians make a grave mistake because many immigrant Americans interviewed for this piece say they have worked with natural Americans in some menial jobs. Therefore, to say Americans are not in menial employment does not represent the truth but a political statement.
It can mean that if people dislike menial jobs as end-of-the-road employment; and would not do such jobs for a lifetime mean they do not do it to survive before navigating their ways to better-paying jobs. Immigrants do the same - do menial jobs and later move to better jobs they may have been prospecting while doing menial jobs or after their American education. No one would like to be on meat-packing jobs, security jobs, and such jobs that do not pay living wages forever. To say that immigrants want to do such jobs that Americans would not do is saying that immigrants are hewers of wood and drawers of water. They are not.
America is a land of opportunity. The chances of success do not beg people to grab them. People struggle their way to gain them. It is what has made America a land of struggle and success for those who know what it means to work hard and succeed. Americans also struggle for a better life, just as immigrants. There is no special treatment for anyone here. Of course, fortune and misfortune have not seized playing their roles in the affairs of men and women.
For politicians to talk glibly about ending discrimination, unaware the public is conscious they have seized on an opportunity of an unacceptable situation to push their political agenda by promoting discrimination they claim to be working against begs for a better explanation. If indeed any government is working against discrimination, wages inequality should the concern of the leaders. Why must be unfortunate to be at the bottom of the wage structure and lack benefits? People avoid end of the road jobs because of poor wage and lack of benefits. It is not a delight for either citizens or immigrants. Working menial jobs is part of the struggle for the American Dream It is risky to fail to struggle for it, whether one is an American or an immigrant. The result of non-struggle would be being left behind or reliance on government assistance. And government assistance hardly turns into blessings.
This brings to mind, Mayor De Blasio's revelation of $40million released by his administration for the benefit of security guards in the city's housing projects - on a third party contract. How the money released by the city for the poor guards is to be utilized has not been explained. Would the money go to the guards' employer or the union representing the guards? Would the money make it possible for the guards to realize the objective of a pay raise for which they been seeking a new contract?
Discrimination is unacceptable. And America has done everything humanly possible to contain and control its spread based on country's history. It is not only in America that discrimination exists and creating enormous problems for governance. There is hardly a society or family where discrimination does not exist among siblings. It is everywhere. It is the cause of the societal classes of the upper class, the middle class, and the poor class. Give encouraging pay and benefit to those end-of-the-jobs and see how people (irrespective of status) would swarm them.
America has done more than any other country regarding civil rights towards equal rights for all, bridging the gaps between classes and creating opportunities through generous access to education and ending discrimination in work places, than any other nation. Give encouraging pay and benefit to those end-of-the-jobs and see how people (irrespective of status) would swarm them.
This brings to mind, Mayor De Blasio's revelation of $40million released by his administration for the benefit of security guards in the city's housing projects on a third party contract. How the money released by the city for the poor guards would be utilized has not been explained. Would the money be given to the employer of the guards or to the union representing the guards? Would the money make it possible for the guards to realize the objective of a pay raise for which they been seeking a new contract?
This brings to mind, Mayor De Blasio's revelation about $40million released by his administration for the benefit of security guards in the city's housing projects on a third party contract. How the money released by the city for the poor guards would be utilized has not been explained. Would the money be given to the employer of the guards or to the union representing the guards? Would the money make it possible for the guards to realize the objective of a pay raise for which they been seeking a new contract?
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