Barry R. Chiswick's The Worker Next Door

Barry R. Chiswick’s assumption of whether or not native born Americans would jump to “pick the lettuce” in a sudden halt to illegal migrant labor is far more complex than the reasoning that there is an existing population of native born Americans capable of executing such jobs. There is no question that Americans are capable of completing the jobs many migrant workers hold. The jobs are not meant to be specialty ones, which essentially allow for any average American to successfully complete them. In the article “The Worker Next Door,” the author’s argument that the halt of migrant labor would not result in a major economic catastrophe is flawed, because there are jobs that American workers will not and do not do. As shown in the 2000 census, 64 percent of 25 to 64 year old men who were employed that year were low-skilled workers born in the United States. Still, even with a large capable population of low-skilled native workers in the United States, there is a high demand for migrant labor. This is because unlike native born Americans, migrants do not necessarily see themselves as a part of American society. …show more content…
The ties between low social status and menial labor allow for the exploitation of migrant workers, which translate into lower wages to that of native born Americans or longer hours of work. This is what makes migrant labor more appealing and more sought after by employers over low skilled American labor because while Americans are more likely to advocate for themselves and have their rights recognized and protected from employers’ exploitation, migrants don’t have these rights and protections. It is even less plausible that high school and college students who have a higher education than most migrants to want to compete or obtain migrants jobs where as these students could obtain a higher skilled and status