They Take Our Jobs ! Summary

In the introduction of the book They Take our Jobs!: and 20 other myths about immigration written by Aviva Chomsky, Chomsky picks apart the words in the United States Constitution to support her belief that although immigrants, specifically Latino/Hispanic immigrants, are a large part in today’s U.S. society, they still do not have any rights or protection from the laws of the Constitution. She states that many of the arguments against immigrants in the United States stem from “serious misconceptions” that have been rooted from history up until present day. The view that immigration only brings about more problems and segregations for the host country has been on-going in history. When it comes down to it, a simple analogy could be made: it is difficult for the
citizens or “homeowners” to be forced to house immigrants or “strangers” in their own country or home. This idea is then exaggerated and made extreme when times are tough or the people of the United States need a scapegoat to put their problems or the government/societal issues on. The finger is pointed at the group of outcasts—immigrants.
They are easy targets. Easy because immigrants who are non-citizens are “legally deprived” of many rights the U.S. Constitution provides for citizens. What many fail to realize, as pointed out in Chacon’s Introduction in No One is Illegal is that immigrants who are here, working, living, and building a life here in the United States contribute a great deal to the overall economy and working class. They take part in the jobs that require heavy manual labor and provide the basic jobs for many large corporations in the United States at minimum wage. Rest assured, it is probable that many of their jobs should be compensated at a higher pay for the type of work they are doing, since most are jobs that many of the middle and higher class citizens cringe at when they think about it. I have speculated that the amount of wage pay or salary today is based upon one’s credentials or experience rather than the manual load or extremities of the job at hand. This correlates to the jobs that many immigrants take on, they do a lot of work for little pay. They work for huge well known corporations and provide the labor needed to keep production at a particular
rate. When times are tough and jobs are difficult to find, like right now, the blame is put upon the immigrants who hold these types of jobs. It is said that “they stole our jobs” and that is why we are unemployed and out of work. However, when looking at the core of the problem, it is not that the immigrants are with jobs but rather the fact that the higher salary paying jobs and higher wage paying jobs are being let go first due to the downward economy and replaced with other persons who may be less qualified but could still complete the job and task at hand. As discussed, immigrants are a big part of today’s “world” and the fact that they lead their daily lives just as a citizen would, immigrants are still not granted certain simple rights a newborn child is given at birth in the United States due to biases, beliefs and judgments based on history classes, politicians, and the media.