Reply #31: ESSAY:JOBS NOBODY WANTS [View All]

[barb162]

ESSAY:JOBS NOBODY WANTS

July 27, 2005


Essayist Clarence Page considers if there really are jobs no one wants.




CLARENCE PAGE: When Mexican President Vicente Fox said, "Migrant workers in the U.S. are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do," he poked a large hole in a political hornet's nest.

Among the first bees to bite him were Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in meetings and phone calls, but not much happened but headlines and talks to agree to hold more talks.

The truth is that Vicente Fox was partly right: A lot of immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, are doing work that most Americans, black or otherwise, don't want to do. But it's also true that a lot of employers prefer to hire undocumented workers. And when that happens, it doesn't matter whether black Americans want to do the work; they don't even get that chance.

Even New York, the great melting pot, got a taste of that earlier this year. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer charged almost a dozen temporary job agencies with discrimination. The agencies allegedly catered to the preferences of employers who only wanted certain races or ethnicities to do work like housekeeping and child care.
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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/essays/july-dec05/page_7-27.html