Back in December 2009, Christopher Jenks ran an interesting roundup on immigration-related titles in the New York Revew of Books. His lead paragraph touches on an important subject:
"Many rich countries have tried hiring foreigners to do their dirty work. Few have been happy with the results. Hiring immigrants for unskilled jobs seems a good deal for the employer. Immigrants will usually accept lower wages than natives, and at least in the United States most employers report that immigrants are more diligent, more reliable, and less prickly than the Americans who apply for such jobs. But hiring unskilled immigrants does not make unskilled Americans disappear; it just depresses their wages. In the long run, moreover, hiring unskilled immigrants has another significant cost. Most immigrants eventually have children, and while many of these children thrive in their new homeland, many do not."
Hiring immigrants to do dirty work is nothing new, even in America. The question is what happens next, and especially in the next 2 generations.
The net effect of failure is toward a permanent underclass that grows organically, as well as from continuous restocking. Hence additional reports like the Washington Post's report "Second-generation Latinos struggle for a higher foothold."
The story doesn't have to end that way. But the current combination of bad policies and laxness sure biases the odds to that end. It's an issue that isn't confined to Latinos, either currently or historically (vid. the Irish experience, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan's critiques), and it needs to become a prominent part of the way we frame modern discussions around both immigration and education policy.
Throw in a massive number of illegals as a renewable way to press down 2nd-generation wages and those of existing lower-class communities, and the net effect is an inhumane, toxic trap. If we don't arrest or short-circuit those trends, the template is Mexico - where middle class people can live like kings, because servants are so cheap and plentiful. That's something I've seen up close. It's convenient for the skybox and the corporate sets, and definitely takes some of the edge off of membership in a withering middle class.
It's also absolutely un-American, and if we sacrifice that principle, we'll have given up most of what America is and has fought to be.
We all deserve better. And we should demand it. (h/t The Corner)