Column on Shore jobs sparks wildfire of comments
Readers have their say about column on whos filling summer jobs, but some are misguided.
"AMERICAN KIDS don't want to work and I'm glad employers are bringing in immigrants to work summer jobs at the Jersey Shore."
"You want lower wages for teachers but higher wages for weight and age guessers on the boardwalk in Wildwood."
"You're Italian and you don't want some other immigrants to have a chance."
These are a pretty good summary of a significant number of the 342 response posts I got on the last column I wrote about the number of jobs in the Wildwoods and Cape May that are filled by immigrants, primarily those from Eastern European countries. Major resort areas have seen a significant increase in the number of overseas workers who are brought in to staff the hotels, motels, amusements and related businesses that are driven by the summer tourism season.
These responses represented a huge amount of dialogue and I'd like to further address some of the issues that were raised. First, it's easy to bloviate that everyone else in America doesn't want to work and feels entitled. I know belief in this stereotype allows people to launch on a diatribe to include phrases about "jobs Americans won't do" and exotic excuses for those who want to cut costs and avoid our marketplace in employing people.
I realize that we do see in our own everyday experience examples of people whose work ethic is suspect, but I still see young people who are hard workers striving to succeed in a difficult economy, while burdened with substantial student debt. I think the people posting against this generation forget that people said the same thing about the baby boomer generation.
In addition to these postings about work ethic, a number of people were speculating about how so many foreign students end up at the Shore. The umbrella program for this is the J-1 Visa Summer Work Travel Program. Another is called the J-1 Trainee and Intern Program. As the Southern Poverty Law Center reported in an expose titled "Culture Shock," this visa program was created by Congress more than 50 years ago "to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange." They conclude that it has been changed into a program to fulfill labor needs and bypass American workers.
The authors claim that employers do not have to pay payroll taxes for J-1 workers. The savings an employer can gain by not paying an employee's Medicare, Social Security or federal unemployment tax can add up to 8 percent on its total payroll expenses. This has enabled staffing agencies to promote the program as an inexpensive labor force.
The report goes on to center on the damage the program causes to the foreign students. I'm more concerned with the disadvantage it causes for American students. I see this visa program as a younger worker version of the H-2 temporary worker program and the H-1B visa program. These programs were in the news last October, when the Atlantic reported 250 IT employees at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., were told they would be laid off and be replaced by IT workers from India, whom they would train to do their jobs in order to receive severance.
The overall idea seems to be that not only are Americans lazy and lacking the drive to do hard jobs, but they also are not smart enough or creative enough to do higher skill jobs. I reject both of these self-serving narratives. It's difficult enough to find work in a challenging economy; it is compounded when your own government writes laws that work against you.
As far as people referencing my Italian roots and not embracing immigrants, those people have run out of rational arguments and are resorting to the tired argument that you're xenophobic if you think allowing employers to use loopholes to bypass our marketplace economy is a good thing. These worker programs clearly need to be re-examined.
I'm headed back to North Wildwood soon for a final week at the Shore. I'll enjoy the beach and ocean, play some golf and be thankful we live so close to such a beautiful area. Maybe I'll even see whether the woman from Eastern Europe can guess my weight or age. One thing I won't have to guess about is that there are probably many Delaware Valley people who would have gladly applied for that summer job.