Immigration Watch International (2): Quick work permits for migrants is unfair way to make crisis worse

Friday, September 1, 2023

Quick work permits for migrants is unfair way to make crisis worse

You have to have got caught up in the legal system to realize how slowly it grinds.

You have to have tried renting an apartment in New York to know how many traps lie in your way.

It’s the same with getting permission to work in this country legally.

Because obviously most Americans are born here, few have an idea how hard it is to obtain the right to work in this country.

Everyone who has moved to this country to work here legally can swop horror stories of the grinding procedures, the lengthy processing times, and the expense.

Because yes, most people (or their employers) will pay considerable sums to gain the right to work legally in the US.

And why not? It isn’t just a right that anyone in the world can work here. Or so I thought.

Now I’m once again feeling like a right dupe.

In fact, after this week’s announcements, I have the same feeling I get in Duane Reade when I’m the only mug actually paying for my shopping.

Because the rules appear to be changing.

As Hochul said in a statement, “Securing expedited work authorization for asylum seekers and migrants has been and remains my top priority. It is the only way to help asylum seekers become self-sustaining, so they can move into permanent housing.”

Of course she is right in wanting to tackle the cost of illegal migration to the state.

As I wrote here recently, within two years this city will be in serious deficit, with the costs solely accounted for by the price of illegal migration.

Even if no more illegal migrants were to arrive in New York the city will still be paying billions of dollars a year to house and otherwise look after the city’s latest arrivals.

Hochul is not the only one pushing expedited work authorization as a solution.

Mayor Adams has been doing the same.

In a speech in May he said: “We have one message, let them work. That is our clear message that we are sending. We must expedite work authorization for asylum seekers, not in the future, but now.”

Senators Schumer and Gillibrand have voiced the same idea.

It is understandable. The idea of illegal migrants paying their way is an attractive one. Until you take a step back and look at the much bigger picture.

Because if the expedited work authorization passes then you can expect the current relative trickle of migrants to turn into a roaring river.

Why? Because the final incentive will have been added to the mix. Meaning the encouragement of mass illegality at the border will grow.

Consider the most basic facts. In Mexico the minimum wage is just over $7 a day. Here in New York the minimum wage is $15 an hour.

In Colombia the average monthly salary is just over $1,000. In New York it’s four times that.

And these are the comparatively more peaceful and stable countries to our South. I’m bypassing for now the countries — like Venezuela — where there is serious insecurity.

So the question is, why would anyone from Mexico or anywhere else in Central and Southern America who wants to make more money not now just walk into the US?

If they came legally and applied to work then they would have to go through an expensive and long-winded bureaucracy.

Whereas if they just walk over the border they will be greeted by the authorities, taken to a city like this one, put up in a hotel and then immediately given the opportunity to earn a salary.

Can you imagine the lure of that for the hundreds of millions of people living in relative poverty across a whole continent?

Many arrivals will send what money they earn back to their families.

Rarely will the migrants come even close to paying back in taxation what they have cost the state just by arriving here.

The benefits of such illegal immigration accrue solely to the migrant.

The costs, by contrast, go solely to the American taxpayer.

If America wanted an immigration system that carefully plugs specific labor and skills shortages then that would be one thing. But this system is not that.

The system we are now moving to is one in which people only have to break across the border to gain the lifestyle that most of the world dreams about.

https://nypost.com/2023/08/31/quick-work-permits-for-migrants-unfair-way-to-make-crisis-worse/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.

The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:

1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.

2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.

3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.

4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.

5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.

6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.

I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.

Immigration Watch International (2)

Friday, September 1, 2023

Quick work permits for migrants is unfair way to make crisis worse

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