December 28, 2007

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12/27/07 - A California Reader Says “Plantation Owners” Will Not Cave In Easily On Cheap Labor

A California Reader Reminds James Fulford That Skilled Immigration Is Bad For Americans, Too

From:  Tim Aaronson (e-mail him)

Re: Pelosi’s Pro-Business Moves Blocked By Reconquista

Just look at this claptrap Fulford wrote about the H-1B program.

“I don't want you to think that I'm wimping out on H-1B visas when I say that importing skilled immigrants may result in a net gain to the US itself, rather than just their employers. They may do something necessary and useful, and wind up being net taxpayers, with a low crime rate. Compare that with importing an entire new underclass to do farm labor that could be done by machines..”

But Professor Norman Matloff of University of California at Davis has made the case for how destructive the H-1B visa program is—age discrimination for older Americans and a career killer for the college aged. The program is a cheap labor subsidy for Bill Gates and other software billionaires.

Very few PhDs benefit from the program. And putting technical work in the hands of foreigners with no allegiance to this country is folly.

It is a lame argument to champion something just because it is better than importing uneducated peasants. We need neither masses of peasants doing feudal tasks nor masses of foreigners taking middle class jobs.

Please, please try, try, try to understand this simple concept: America is a nation. America has an economy. But America is not the economy. We do not bow down and worship at the altar of the economy.

We are—or should be—guided by what is best for the nation.

Aaronson is the author of “On Teachable Moments (about billboards)”, an exchange with a Hispanic teacher about ProjectUSA’s brilliant billboard campaign, The Social Contract, Spring 2000. His previous letters are here.

James Fulford replies:

I insist that I'm not championing H1-b importation when I point out that if you're in a neighborhood that has a combination of Polish, Chinese, and Indian engineers move in to it, you're much safer than if the same number of Hispanics moves in and takes over. (On the other hand, an engineer who is replaced by an import  may lose his  job and his  home.)

So, yes, Tim Aaronson is right, skilled immigration can be more destructive in some ways, particularly in terms of political influence, since such immigrants come to the US with their loyalties and ideologies already formed.