Illegal Irish Immigrants Worth More than Illegal Mexicans
There’s an interesting report on Bloomberg looking at the impact of the failure of the recent immigration bill to pass.
English-speaking (which includes the Irish), traveling grain workers go around in crews, from May in Texas up through the plains of Kansas Wheat to North Dakota in November, harvesting stuff that grows.
And seemingly, while the numbers of the English-speaking (who happen to be white I imagine) immigrants are way less than the 3 million, mostly Hispanic undocumented immigrants involved in meatpacking, produce and food service, “an individual harvester’s economic impact is far greater because of the mechanization of the grain harvest”
Specifically, U.S. wheat was worth more than the combined output of grapes, tomatoes and apples in 2006 - because those are so labor-intensive.
US grain farmers rely on international workers because the season is so long it tends to exclude students, and there’s age restrictictions anyway on the necessary commercial driving licenses.
It’s not exactly glamorous stuff, with 16 hours day between the dews and working continually while making quick repairs to keep a $300,000 combine harvester going. I can’t even make quick repairs to a bicycle so I don’t know what that means.
And the pay-off? Sleep in a trailer with the rest of the crew for free while getting pay (after deductions) of around $1,800 per month. Plus the attraction of seeing the heartland. Hmmm, and I like the heartland.
For whatever reason those conditions attract immigrants more than domestic workers who can make more money with their skills, but you have the usual immigration hoops to go through if you want to be legal, and in a time sensitive farming environment that’s not conducive to stopping the vulnerability of crops to a poor weather season like this one.
And that was where the recent bill had it passed would have made life easier, (read: more competitive in world markets) - for farmers and the illegal South Africans, and Irish like Thomas Murphy:
Thomas Murphy grew up farming potatoes 25 miles north of Dublin. He came to America two years ago on a student visa to learn about U.S. agriculture. When the harvest is done, he returns to Ireland and tends bar.
This year, his application for an H2A visa was denied. U.S. officials thought Murphy, who’s 23 and single, might not have enough Irish ties to want to return.
Maybe different bills for different cases might have worked better, but I have little confidence in a legislature when it comes to immigration matters and that’s why I don’t regard the label of “illegal” when applied to immigrants as necessarily immoral.
I came over to the US originally on a H1B visa as adapted for I.T. workers, and it wasn’t at the first attempt. The system was a farcical inefficient joke from start to finish, and I am glad that now as the holder of a Permanent Resident card (”Green Card”) I no longer have to deal with what the INS call themselves these days, and the way in their offices in person I would get discriminated in favour of other people who weren’t white.
See More on Immigration:
• Irish Immigrants & Bad Birds
• Immigration Myths
• Timmy McVeigh & the Mexican Wall Climbers
• Kansas Irish to go home?
• Irish Flags in US Political Demonstrations
• Green, White, and Red Apples
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
In 1999 I was one of thousands of young men who received temporary work visas to legally work during the harvest season for a custom harvester. I traveled from Ireland. I did not meet one person who was working there illegally. IE: without a temporary work visa.
It looks to me and every other intelligent person reading this article like the definition of illegal immigrant has now extended to include those with work visas granted by the US embassies in the immigrants country of origin even when it clearly states above and in the Bloomberg piece that visas had been granted or denied in Murphy’s case
Typically 95% of these workers will do one season of harvesting and return home. It is certainly not out of financial necessity that I or any of the others I worked with wanted to do this job, like Thomas Murphy we came over as interns to learn about American agriculture.
A job on the harvest run may not have been glamourous to many or even well paid but it was for almost everybody a once in a lifetime experience that all had wanted to do for some time before actually getting the chance to do so. I really enjoyed working and travelling the width of the USA from Texas up to the Canadian border and back.
The friends I made then and the fun we had I will never forget. Looking back now the experience of working in a quite often dirty and hot, stressful and sometimes dangerous environment for long hours at the time pushed me to my limits and I proved to myself that I could work 14-18 hour days for months on end. As a young person it benefited me greatly. It was a great experience I would love to repeat however it is a job for single young men and women with no responsibilities.
America, and many other first world countries like Ireland and the UK I might add, are going to have to chose between cheap home produced agricultural produce subsidised by cheap foreign labour and not so cheap imported produce which brings absolutely nothing to rural economies or the economy as a whole. Sadly it seems that once again bigotry and not reason has won out.
Thanks very much for that Laurence. It’s much appreciated.