On: July 15, 2007

Illegal immigration and outsourcing are similar in their impact on the American job market. Both take jobs away from Americans and give them to non-Americans who will do the jobs for significantly less money and fewer benefits.  Employers hire illegals and contract with foreign firms in order to increase profits by reducing the costs to produce their products and deliver their services.

Illegal Immigration
With illegal immigration, employers break the law by hiring individuals in the U.S. illegally.
The employers pay the illegals two to five times less than they paid American citizens. The Americans, whose jobs were taken by illegals, aren’t able to work for these low wages after developing a standard of living based on the higher wages. The low wages don’t allow illegals to live at an American standard of living either!  But they manage to live here because they are given free health care, free or reduced college tuition, free school breakfasts and lunches, free transportation and access to our social services like welfare and food stamps.

Illegals have tended to be individuals with low levels of education.  They are performing jobs that don’t require formal education and are manual-based in areas like agriculture, construction, landscaping, food service, waste management and custodial,

Outsourcing
With outsourcing, employers either hire companies outside the U.S. to make their products (e.g.. toys and athletic shoes) or provide their services (e.g. call centers and software development) or they build a facility outside the U.S. to manufacture all or part of their products (e.g.. maquiladoras).   The standard of living in the countries U.S. employers outsource their products and services are far below the American standard of living.  So the workers in these countries are paid far less than employers would have to pay Americans for this work.

Individuals in other countries who are performing outsourced services for US companies are typically well educated.  They perform services like software design and programming, product design and customer service call centers.  They  provide product development and manufacturing for many products like furniture, clothing . Not only is the actual design and manufacturing oursourced but many of the supporting services like banking, accounting and legal are outsourced.

Fewer Available Jobs
The jobs available to Americans will continue to dwindle.  As free trade agreements proliferate, the incentive and opportunities for outsourcing will increase.  As illegals obtain free education in our country, they will be able to take clerical and other semi-skilled jobs that require education away from Americans.

To the extent illegal immigration is not controlled, educated individuals from other countries, who might normally go through the legal immigration process, will find decide to enter the US illegally.  As technology and communications continue to improve, it will facilitate the ability to outsource and will enable the outsourcing of functions like medical imaging and diagnostics.

Slowly but surely the types of jobs available to Americans will be reduced.  Some of our so-called leaders suggest that when we lose a job we simply need to go back to school or get training to learn new skills.  Anyone with common sense knows that this sentiment is flipent and nonsense.  The lose of a job has profound effects.

Illegal immigration is illegal and thus of no value to the country.  As we globalize, outsourcing is and will continue to play a role.  The American consumer will decide how much outsourcing they will tolerate.  If we can’t understand what outsourced call center individuals are saying and if imported products aren’t of good quality or pose a danger (i.e. toys with lead paint), we will adjust our buying habits and the companies utilizing outsourcing will adjust.  Outsourcing also poses a potential security issue.  We don’t want to outsource things that can give an enemy an advantage or which makes us dependent on others for our national security.