POSTED BY: Dan Phul (March 26, 2007 02:06 PM)
The American-Born Worker is constaintly required to be Bi-Lingual as a job requirement. This allows hispanic undocumented workers to take jobs Americans would typically have gotten. Hispanic Americans as well as the undocumented must learn the American language(english)to work. Go to Mexico and see how many jobs you get speaking engish only. We Americans should not be the second-choice/class citizen to catter to the non-english speaking.

POSTED BY: John P. NC (March 26, 2007 02:23 PM)
I hope people that actually read this article does not believe it. If the author of this article visited the states where housing starts were abundant in the past several years (NC, FL) and actually saw who was building our homes he would see that hispanics have taken over every phase of home building. Most American subcontractors in North Carolina and FL that used to be roofers, finishers, etc had to change employmenet because they could not keep the prices down to where the builders where paying the hispanics. The author would need to do basic hands on reasearch - to see that he failed in his presentation.

POSTED BY: john van der wick (March 26, 2007 02:53 PM)
Nice to see that this author was an unbiased native born person..

POSTED BY: Robert Marsh (March 26, 2007 06:28 PM)
Oh, the "unbiased" Pew HISPANIC Center. Ha,Nuff said! I suspect next we will hear from Rakesh representing some Indian Center.

POSTED BY: LJ (March 26, 2007 08:28 PM)
Clearly the author of this article had a pro-foreign bias, just based on where he works....what else would you expect him to say? I have lost count of how many construction workers, carpet installers and retail workers I have come across in recent weeks who are all foreigners!!! These were jobs that used to be worked by Americans. Even the lowly McDonalds type jobs are lost to your teenagers. Now the employers can employ adult illegals instead...and for the same money or less. Keep your head in the sand if you want to, but having these people here depresses wages. Add into this the national security issue...If they come here illegally, exactly WHO are they and WHAT are they planning to do? You CAN'T answer this question unless they are properly processed. Attrition through enforcemnt is the way to go. Hit the employers of illegals with jail or massive fines. When the jobs dry up, and awful lot of illegals will go home. Tom Tancredo , Congressman from Colorado, is the only one with a position worth considering on this issue for the Presidential election....they have to enter legally, or not at all. NO AMNESTY!!!

POSTED BY: J Smith (March 26, 2007 09:46 PM)
Dan - constaintly? engish? catter? Perhaps you need to work on your English - it might help your job skills. john - You're not prejudiced, are you, simply because the author of the article does not appear to be of European descent?

POSTED BY: regina (March 26, 2007 11:28 PM)
there was a time young high school teenagers would work at a fast food restaurant. Everyone could garuntee a time at the corner hamburger joint. Then the time came when the order takers could barely speak passible english. There was always, what did you say. Then one day everyone working at Burger King was hispanic and they didn't even bother to try to speak passible english. Orders were wrong or they got the one employee who could speak passible english to translate. So if these jobs are going to immigrants what ever happened to the kids who want their first job and a few dollars spending money. They don't get a chance at the job because you can't talk them out of minimum wage or they talk back because they know the rules. Or they aren't worried about being deported. I quit drive thru's because what good is it to put your order in in English and have it repeated back to you in spanish.

POSTED BY: Jon Taylor (March 27, 2007 12:49 AM)
Any American who protests allowing Hispanic, Chinese or Indian competition for jobs is simply racist. If you are a better worker you will be hired at a good wage; if you are a lesser worker you may be hired, but probably only at a lower wage. Welcome to America and the spirit of competitive enterprise. If anything, you as a white person already have the benefit of the doubt with you. You're more likely to have a college education and the privilege of upbringing without communism, poverty or famine. If hard working (Hispanic) men take your idiot drug using cousin's job in the construction industry, good: When my houses in North Carolina and Floridaare built they will actually be built right. According to their website: "The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan 'fact tank' that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does not take positions on policy issues. Its work is carried out by these seven projects:" One of which is the Pew Hispanic Center whose "... mission is to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the nation. The Center conducts social science research, including economic, demographic and public opinion studies." So Robert, you automatically dismissed the validity of the analytical research because the word Hispanic is in the title? Or am I reading your comment falsely: "Oh, the "unbiased" Pew HISPANIC Center. Ha,Nuff said!" You should really think before you post because on the internet what you write may last in perpetuity; but based on John and Robert's abilities to achieve literacy and tolerance, I'm afraid that they'll miss the point. Oh ya, I'm Canadian, so if you need the race issue to feel superior, it's there. Sincerely, Jon

POSTED BY: Kim b (March 27, 2007 01:41 AM)
All this tells me is that immigrants tend to go where the economy and jobs are most plentiful. This does not prove that they are not displacing U.S. workers and driving down wages, and driving up the cost of housing...

POSTED BY: Cathy G TX (March 27, 2007 06:25 AM)
I was laid off from my last position and have filled 100's of applications I am well qualified for everything that I have applied for and am still unemployed. If you walk into a warehouse to pickup or deliver freight you are lucky to find someone who can speak English. At my last position I was told point blank that I was to high dollar. The warehouse workers there don't speak English, they needed translators to tell them what to do.

POSTED BY: barbara (March 27, 2007 08:19 AM)
Excellent article. It shows that a lot of the hype that the media spews out is the same crap that was spewed out in the 60's regarding the blacks. At that time we were told about the crime and welfare numbers being so high and now you hear nothing about that in the news but only about how the Mexican population is taking over our jobs and costing the tax payer more and more. When was the last time anyone ever saw a native born bent over in the field picking strawberries? If the farmer had to pay min. wage to those immigrants the cost of our food would sky rocket. The immigrant has not taken any job away from anyone who wants to work. When was the last time that any immigrant took a college grad's job away from him? It doesn't take a lot of study to see that the media wants discontent to be part of our daily lives. It also keeps us off balance. If we are busy worrying about the immigrant problem we are not taking the time to protest what is really going on in Washington. We need to keep our eye on the bouncing ball!! What is really driving the tax base up is our involvement in this Iraq war. It is costing you and me billions and our grandchildren will still be paying for it though the next generation.

POSTED BY: Frank Johnson (March 27, 2007 10:02 AM)
What world is this person living in? Has he ever been to the Miami-Dade area? Not only are the home building jobs lost to American born, but in Miami most all other jobs are lost. Remember all a Cuban has to do to stay in America is land on our soil. At that point he is entitiled to all benifits that all Americans are. Come into the real world.

POSTED BY: Will H Ca (March 27, 2007 12:58 PM)
Scholars are so often not connected to the real world. This guy's statistics are interesting but the real world tells me something completely different. While it is true that there are no, or extremely few, farm workers who are native born it is also true that there are very few english speakers in the fields. No one wants to work where they are the only one who speaks a different language. I worked in the strawberry fields iin the spring and summer when I was in high school. Many of my friends did too. We worked along side the braceros and other workers (American born) who traveled with the crop jobs. There was no problem but everyone was welcome. Now if you can find an English speaking foreman you are lucky. The problem of illegal immigrants is prevelant throughout the soutwest and no one is willing to do anything of consequence about it so the problem, like a plague, spreads. The often heard phrase, "They do the jobs that Americans won't do", is blantantly false. Travel throughout the United States and you will find Americans doing every kind of job there is. Go to Kearney, Nebraska or Gilmer, Texas or Jacksonville,Illinois or any other small to medium size town across the country and you will find people doing what Americans won't do. In these towns the entry-level jobs are held by entry-level people, high school and college kids. They speak English and they are part of their community. The, "Foreign-Born Workforce", has for the most part, made no effort to assimilate. This is not their home, this is someplace to get money to send home. It is sad that so many of our pandering politicians, and that includes chiefs of police and sheriffs, do not have the backbone necessary to do anything except try to get re-elected. A little effort on the part of these "leaders" would go a long way in controlling the spread of a "Foreign-Born Workforce" and the return of the so called, "lost American work ethic".

POSTED BY: Jon Frandsen (March 27, 2007 01:06 PM)
Hello Readers, This is Jon Frandsen, a senior editor at Kiplinger.com. I am responsible for the Kiplinger Recommends section of the Business Resource Center. Given the strong interest in the Pew Hispanic Center study, let me explain what we hope to accomplish with the Recommends articles. We search out studies, articles and speeches on a broad variety of issues of interest to business. We don't endorse the conclusions reached by any of the authors or their organizations, nor do we publish pieces with the idea of supporting a policy position, political party or ideology. We do look for well-researched, well-thought out and even provocative ideas, suggestions and points of view from experts in a given field with an eye toward informing and stimulating thought and discussion. We also regard this feature as a tool. Most Recommends articles are drawn from longer works and include Web links to the original source and, sometimes, to related material by the same author or group. In this case, I would suggest that those who have questions about how Rakesh Kochhar reached his conclusions look at his paper on the Pew Hispanic Center Web site since he explains his methodology in detail. For those interested in further research, I'll point out that the Public Policy Institute of California published similar research last month: www.ppic.org/content/pubs/cacounts/CC_207GPCC.pdf. While it is only about the effect of immigrant workers in that state, California is a particularly good laboratory. It has a higher proportion of immigrant workers than any other state in the nation. Hope this helps.

POSTED BY: tm (March 28, 2007 03:51 PM)
I worked in a sign company/factory in DC for quite sometime. When I worked there most of the workers were white and americans, but after 2 years or so, they started to be replaced by latinos. I asked my boss, who is white, how he feels about this situation. he said, "it is perfectly fine!" why? before those latino workers replaced the americans, the americans did nothing but complain, take a bathroom break for 1 hour, do a lousy job, quit within 3 weeks. ... so no wonder why my boss wouldnt argue about hiring latinos. In my opinion this problem will not be solved without a realistic solution. there's no way to deport 11 mil illegals and theres hardly a way to satisfy the cry of americans who say, "they took our jobs!(south park episode, lol)." IF we can make a realistic bill that would satisfy 50/50 of these parties, i think that's as much as our law can do.

POSTED BY: jgo (March 29, 2007 12:21 AM)
Well, the author is correct. No conclusion -- one way or the other -- can be reached from the coarse data, coarsely analyzed. The margins need to be more closely examined on a field by field basis (construction, software product development, programming services, farm-hands, bio-engineers, doctors, nurses...) and looking at more age ranges and skill ranges. Pay attention to those other studies. I suspect that a longitudinal study of just a few thousand people or families, and running from 1945 or 1960 to 2006, would have been more revealing.

POSTED BY: David (January 29, 2008 09:15 PM)
There's an interesting discussion at Google Answers on what it means to have 'difficulty' hiring US workers, and the role of immigrant labor: answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=771850 I think it will be of interest to the readers here.