In 2004 the movie A Day Without a Mexican proposed the question, what if one day we woke up and all of the Mexican illegal immigrants had disappeared from California, meaning no cooks, maids, or nannies. The film, although through extreme hyperbole, still makes the point that without these illegal immigrants the economy would suffer and basically making the point that the jobs once filled by illegal workers would now belong to legal workers and cost the employers much more.
Sarah Kershaw, of the New York Times, asks "what if the restaurant industry — one of the largest employers of immigrants, a good number of whom, it is no secret, are undocumented — had to do it all above board?" She proposes a valid question as, according to a survey in 2008, 20% of this country's chefs, head cooks, cooks and around 28% of dishwashers are illegal immigrants. Additionally, as the Obama Administration begins to scrutinize those employers who hire an undocumented workers, restaurants should be wary of who they are hiring now cause it could cost them more in the future.
Interestingly enough, it appears as though the consumer would be the one to pay if restaurants were to only hire legal workers as they would see the price of their meals shoot up drastically. This issue could be seen as an ethical one as the employers are knowingly hiring these workers, yet those people need the jobs to stay in the country. Also it asks the question to customers whether or not they would still go to eat at a certain restaurant if they knew some of the employees were illegal immigrants. I personally I am not sure where I stand on the issue of immigration but I do believe that it's important for the country to examine its values in order to pursue this issue.
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/what-if-restaurants-stopped-hiring-illegal-immigrants/?scp=3&sq=restaurants&st=cse
I personally think this is a very interesting article. Should we, the consumer, want to pay a higher cost for a meal, knowing illegal immigrants are working long, hard hours of minimum wage; when a full time legal worker could have the same job for a higher cost and less hours? I think there are certain jobs that we need illegal immigrants for, and it is good that we have them here, however they are taking up a large part of our work force that would otherwise be taken up by legal citizens if they were not around.
ReplyDeleteIf illegals were back over the border, we would be able to have farms farmed by Americans, and thus a decrease in obesity, since people would be working out...again. Other jobs that legal citizens do not want to do, so we leave it to the illegals include cleaning bathrooms (janitor or custodian), bus boy, driving the metro, driving the AU shuttle, driving taxis, etc. If we did not have illegals, than 16 year olds would be doing these jobs, and I would not trust a 16 year old at 230 am on Saturday morning driving a shuttle.
This is a great article with a great idea, especially in our current times. My Spanish teacher from high school used to advocate for the illegal immigrants. At first I could not understand why, but she had the same argument. Many young Americans do not want the jobs these illegal immigrants have. These illegal immigrants are actually helping our economy in a way - though many people do not see that. I think it would be a shame if the restaurant industry stops taking on illegal immigrants. I suppose it is unethical, but if no one else will do the work, then why not?
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