Immigrants as the Hardest Workers

Yesterday, the Socialist Left made the claim Mexicans are the hardest-working people you will ever meet.  This was contested and reasonably with the counter all immigrants are the hardest-working people you will ever see.

Fair enough and it's true.  We saw the phenomenon for America in which it was the open-arms melting pot for immigrants and refugees from anywhere in the world.  The result was the country growing to become the most prosperous in the world.

We saw the same phenomenon in Germany after they accepted eleven million refugees in the post-WWII time and grew to become one of the most prosperous nations in Europe.


Here on the Socialist Left, we reject categorically the racist approach to immigrants, refugees, braceros, whatever anyone wishes to call the Mexicans who come to America to work, legally or illegally.  The hypocrisy is without much parallel as America actively encouraged bracero workers up until (I think) 1964 and the Mexican government did not want them to go because they needed the workers at home to build the economy and they still do.


There is no blame but rather poor foreign policy.  It's complex as investment in Mexico will keep Mexican workers where they live but that situation may result in American workers going there or losing their jobs to another nation.  We have seen already how NAFTA sent American jobs there although American workers did not benefit from it.  Therefore, we submit in this context investment is valid but not in the way it has been done in Mexico and elsewhere to exploit cheap labor.  That's not investment but rather slave labor by proxy.


Silas Scarborough, the resident scofflaw, is an immigrant from Australia as was everyone from my parents to my siblings of this generation but all of their progeny arrived here.  Most but not all ultimately became American citizens although, in my case, I don't care about nationalism and never have.  From my perspective and not necessarily that of the family, nationalism is only of interest for the arts and traditions of that people.

My family has rarely, if ever, accepted government benefits and I didn't even claim unemployment when I got out of the Army.  I know it was a right and I earned it but that didn't prevent a bad feeling about it.  In some significant part, I didn't want to screw with it because it was the state.  Nevertheless, there's another large part which doesn't feel comfortable with it.

No-one in the family has ever truly retired except due to medical necessity.  We are a pack of hard-working mofos and have been all the way down the line.

So, that's how it goes from an immigrant who has lived it but we had strong education with my father and privilege insofar as we were entitled to an almost-free university education although I was the only one who took it to a four-year degree.  Lotho earned two and perhaps three two-year degrees in such exotic things as jet aircraft engines and other such esoteric disciplines.  All were driven by the need to achieve expertise in whatever we have been doing.

(Ed:  you were a worthless deadbeat bum!)

True enough before I decided I should find a way to eat but that cost no-one other than my family and it didn't cost them all that much because I did accept benefits of the G.I. Bill after the Army and continued with my university until I earned the degree.  I didn't feel any compunction against accepting G.I. Bill benefits because I knew for sure I earned those.


In summary, there's no cookbook answer from here on the Socialist Left but we believe the rabid racism of the Tea Party toward illegal immigrants is heavily-destructive to both countries and addresses the problem in no way whatsoever.  When the streets are said to be paved with gold, people will use any power they possibly can to get there.  Walls will not stop them and neither will guns.

Ted Nay was a student at CSIRO, a large-scale university and research organization in Australia, and he and my ol' Dad became fast friends.  He, as was my ol' Dad, was an immigrant to Australia and he would be called a refugee today.  He wasn't looking for streets of gold but rather streets which were not minefields because he had crossed a minefield with his wife and his baby to escape Ukraine after WWII.  He was a board-certified physician but could not even bring his papers so he earned his right to practice medicine all over again.  He was also a brilliant painter and one particular piece I remember to this day.


That's my own experience with immigration and this was legal but not, in my view, substantially different from illegal except insofar as the acceptance.  The willingness to work is there and it's universal in immigrants because none of us have any fallback.  We work to survive.  That's been the biggest motivation throughout my life.  There is no fallback so work no matter how much you hate it so find a way to enjoy it.  I did.  It was my private bragging right that no-one will keep up with me for hours and I pay for that now but I don't regret except insofar as cigarettes were used as cheap energy and that was immensely destructive.

As to acceptance, one of the things I remember most clearly was some kid remarking, "I can't believe you learned English so fast!"

My (private) rejoinder was, "Yes, and I can't believe you didn't."

On that note, this scribe will wrap it.