“Americans, they’ll work a day and quit.”
I'm really tired of hearing that insultingly lame argument.
"Student worker visas draw complaints; Resort areas turn to foreign students for help, but some say the visa system hurts their US peers" by Katie Johnston | Globe Staff, June 03, 2012
Every June, about 80 foreign college students arrive in Hyannis to sort laundry, iron sheets, and fold towels at Cape Cod Commercial Linen Service Inc. Students from Asia and Europe make up a quarter of the summer staff at Chatham Bars Inn in Chatham. Near Phippsburg, Maine, two dozen young adults, mainly from Eastern Europe, will spend their summer breaks working as housekeepers, dishwashers, and kitchen staff at the Sebasco Harbor Resort.
“They’re doing a lot of jobs that honestly it’s hard to find Maine kids to do,” said Bob Smith, owner of the Sebasco Harbor Resort. Without the foreign students, especially those who can stay into the fall, he added, “We’d be dead.”
Almost 17,000 college students from around the world worked in seasonal jobs in New England last year, and in doing so, have become the latest flashpoint in the battle over foreign workers and American jobs.
With the economy still struggling and teen unemployment at record levels, supporters of tougher immigration policies say a State Department program that brings in these foreign students is displacing young Americans in need of work.
Some aren't struggling, kids.
"Corporate profits have risen 58 percent since mid-2009" and "corporate profits set a post World War II record last year."
Oh, yeah, big banks are booming and oil companies are doing just fine, too.
The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington research group that favors limiting immigration, maintains that the program provides incentives to hire these foreign workers, since employers don’t have to pay Medicare, Social Security, or unemployment taxes, and depresses wages, since the students are usually willing for work for less.
Yes, but if you point that out you are tagged a racist by the rich man's media.
Related(?):
"illegal immigrants, who mow the lawns, trim the hedges, clean the swimming pools, park the cars, serve the hors d'oeuvres, tidy up the mansions, and do many of the other things that make life so enjoyable for the rich"
Now, I'm not saying the college kids are illegals, but it's the same dynamic at work.
Btw, the foreign kids thus COMPLAIN LESS, too -- another advantage to, well, you know.
But those in the local tourism industry say foreign students are vital to the operation of hotels, restaurants, and other businesses during the short peak season. Cape Cod needs an additional 25,000 workers every summer, and there aren’t enough locals to fill the jobs, said Wendy Northcross, chief executive of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.
“Our labor pool is so finite,” she said, citing the Cape’s large population of retirees. “We really depend on this young, intelligent worker coming in that’s anxious to learn about our culture and roll up their sleeves and work.”
Yeah, Amurkn kids just wanna play video games.
The State Department program, know as Summer Work Travel, was created in 1961 to promote cultural exchanges between Americans and international citizens by issuing temporary J-1 visas for college students to work in the United States during school vacations.
Students from around the world pay several thousand dollars apiece to private organizations — authorized by the State Department — that help them find temporary US jobs.
Also see: Boston Globe Green Card
Together, these agencies make more than $100 million a year in fees from students and their families, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
Is there nothing this government won't do to serve money?
Employers pay no fees to these agencies, as they typically would to US staffing firms, further tipping the scales in favor of foreign workers, said the center’s research fellow Jerry Kammer, who wrote a study critical of the program, entitled “Cheap Labor as Cultural Exchange.”
“That is a very dignified mantle for what has become a huge money-making industry that has the effect of disadvantaging many young Americans at a time of record youth unemployment,” Kammer said.
There is always service to the empire, kiddo!
Less than 26 percent of US teens age 16 to 19 had jobs last year, the lowest teen employment rate since the end of World War II, according to Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies. Only 30 percent of college students had jobs, a 45-year low.
And coincidentally(?) corporate profits were at their highest levels.
Neil Sullivan, executive director of the Boston Private Industry Council, which helps teens and young adults find jobs, said he doesn’t blame foreign students for the lack of opportunities.
Instead, he suggested that a program be created to connect local young people to seasonal tourism jobs around New England.
“A whole generation is coming of work age with half as much prior work experience,” he said. “The consequences for a productive workforce are profound.”
You know, it is WERE I GOT MY START: washing dishes at a local restaurant, and I credit it with supplying a work ethic.
Despite high unemployment, business owners say they still aren’t able to attract enough Americans to work as dishwashers and housekeepers.
“It’s jobs the American students don’t want to take,” said Michael Briggs, resort manager of the Chatham Bars Inn, where up to 175 workers are Asian and Eastern European students. “We put the ads out there, but we just don’t get any takers.”
I'm incredulous on that one.
Bunker Hill Community College student Julson Etienne has applied for several jobs as a cashier and student mentor since his job at the college library ended in April, leaving him without an income to pay for food and rent. Etienne, 22, said he would gladly work in the kitchen or transport luggage at a Cape Cod hotel, but has no interest in washing dishes or working as housekeeper.
“I can do better than that,” he said.
Ever notice the Globe always finds the exception to prove their agenda-pushing point?
Besides, I thought the dishes and housekeeping was for the 16-19 set. If this guy can't or won't do that, what does it say that the entire employment ladder has been pulled up. That's why the kids aren't working. They fell off the end of the ladder when it was pulled up.
Btw, kids, recruiting office is open late on Tuesday on Thursday.
At the Orleans Inn in Orleans, owner Ed Maas said he is hiring fewer foreign workers as the weak economy had led more US students to apply, but he still can’t find enough Americans to fill all his jobs.
Oh, so even the premise of they don't want 'em, won't apply, is debunked in the very same agenda-pushing article -- about two-thirds of the way through, of course. Reporters and newspapers know most people don't read this far.
About 10 of his 50-member staff this summer are from overseas, down from 25 in 2009.
The foreign students, he added, are excellent workers, some with six years of college behind them as they study to become doctors and engineers. “They’re just so enthusiastic and so grateful for being here,” Maas said.
Meanwhile, American are being filled with politically-correct garbage.
The State Department has cut the number of visas it issues for the Summer Work Travel program to 109,000 a year, down from 153,000 in 2008, and recently adopted rules aimed at protecting American jobs. Agencies that place foreign students must confirm that they are not displacing US workers or sending the students to companies that had layoffs in the previous four months.
The State Department is also adopting rules to protect foreign students, following a 2010 Associated Press investigation that found some working in strip clubs and in situations students compared to indentured servitude.
Related: Brazilian Killer Strips Boston Bare
Brookline Bachelor Party
Last summer, hundreds of foreign students walked off their jobs to protest conditions at a chocolate distribution plant in Hershey, Pa....
FLASHBACK:
"Foreign students protest jobs in Hershey" Associated Press / August 19, 2011
HERSHEY, Pa. - Foreign students brought to work at a candy warehouse protested conditions and pay for a second day yesterday, chanting on Chocolate Avenue under streetlights shaped like Hershey’s Kisses, as the State Department said it was investigating.
More than 100 students gathered in touristy downtown Hershey, home to the nation’s second-largest candy maker, arguing that they were employed under the guise of a cultural exchange but toil away in what amounts to a sweets sweatshop.
“All we can do is work and sleep,’’ said Godwin Efobi, 26, a Ukrainian student originally from Nigeria.
The students, who protested with a bullhorn, leaflets, and a petition they planned to present to Hershey executives, complain of hard physical labor, steep pay deductions, rent that often left them with little spending money, and no cultural enrichment. They said their complaints were met with threats of deportation, prompting some to look for help....
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Related: Foreign workers for Hershey protest Pa. conditions
Gee, the website really expanded on my pos paper clip.
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Related: Demand for foreign work visas rises
Increase H-1B visa numbers for skilled workers
Actually, word is out that you college kids are a bunch of lazy shits.
UPDATE: Many teens feeling the loss as summer jobs dwindle
They must think you kids are stoo-pid.
At least Massachusetts is secure:
"Illegal-immigrant scrutiny tightens in Mass." May 08, 2012|Maria Sacchetti
Federal officials next week will expand in Massachusetts a controversial program targeting illegal immigrants, particularly criminals, despite longstanding opposition from Governor Deval Patrick and advocates, according to local law enforcement officials who were notified Tuesday of the launch.
Federal officials had announced plans to launch the program- called Secure Communities - by the end of 2013, and the announcement that it would come on May 15 caught some officials by surprise. Patrick has objected to the program on grounds that it nets many immigrants with no criminal convictions.
Secure Communities allows federal immigration officials to tap into the longstanding tradition of information-sharing between local law enforcement and the FBI. Local police routinely send the fingerprints of people they arrest to the FBI for criminal background checks. Now, through Secure Communities, the FBI will share those fingerprints with immigration officials to identify illegal immigrants for deportation, especially criminals and repeat violators of federal immigration law.
The decision by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expand the program in Massachusetts follows intensive lobbying by politicians and local law enforcement. It also follows a string of highly publicized motor vehicle accidents involving illegal immigrants.
Last week, a Cape Cod florist died after allegedly being struck by an immigrant who officials said had overstayed her visa.
See: Cape Cod florist dies after being struck by car
On Friday, a Guatemalan man here illegally was arrested for allegedly driving drunk and trying to run down a State Police trooper.
In a pivotal case last August, Matthew Denice of Milford was struck and killed by an illegal immigrant, who was arrested and charged with drunken driving.
See: Immigrants on the Move in Massachusetts
After Denice’s death, many politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, intensified calls on the Patrick administration to embrace Secure Communities.
“This isn’t just a big victory for law enforcement,’’ said Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who has lobbied the Patrick administration to embrace the program for months. “This is a big victory for the families who have lost loved ones.’’
See: Feds Won't Aid Massachusetts Jails
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement - known as ICE - had hoped to have Secure Communities in half of Massachusetts counties by October 2010, but negotiations with the Patrick administration stalled.
Later that year, the administration said it was willing to enroll in the program. But amid public criticism, the governor changed his mind.
Amazing how some pressure and protests by certain interest groups get results, 'eh, kids?
Last year, joining the governors of Illinois and New York, Patrick said he favored deporting violent criminals but was concerned that Secure Communities would target immigrants never convicted of a crime.
Later federal officials said they would proceed, despite the objections.
Secure Communities, which started to expand nationwide in 2008, exists in almost every state, most recently expanding in New Hampshire this week. New York, Arkansas, and Wyoming are expected to fully activate along with Massachusetts next week, officials said.
The Boston Police Department, which piloted the program in 2006, is the only department in Massachusetts using the program now.
Related: Boston No Longer Secure
Yesterday, advocates expressed concern that immigrants fearful of deportation will refuse to turn to police for help - or to aid them in their investigations. Advocates have said that victims of domestic violence and other crimes are already afraid to turn to police for fear of deportation, even though police say they will not target crime victims.
Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said her group was disappointed by the news....
Some immigrant advocates, including Millona, also say the program is deporting immigrants who have not been convicted of a crime - one of the main goals cited by supporters....
Except for the being here illegally part.
But US immigration official spokesman Ross Feinstein said....
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Related: Border Patrol to gather intelligence on repeat crossers
Patrick rips Ariz., Ala. immigrant legislation
Vermont now part of US Secure Communities program
Being Treated Like Cattle in Connecticut
Slow Saturday Special: Massachusetts a Sanctuary No More
Globe's Cross-Country Road Trip
Can I See Your Driver's License?
They always ask me for mine when I'm stopped.
