Mexicans taking over manual labor in America.

I needed to have my roof replaced so I got 5 estimates on the job. One of the questions I asked the contractors was, do your workers speak english? Out of the 5 all of them said no. The only ones that speak english are the supervisors. Out of all 5 companies they all employ only mexican labor. I am not cutting the Mexicans down because all they want is to work but come on. Is the only way to make money anymore is to hire illegal workers? I talked to a couple out the 8 and none of them have a valid green card to work in the US. High tech work is farmed out to India and hard labor is done by the Mexicans. I am thinking that the future employement scene in America looks dim for Americans.

This is mostly because most Americans do not want to do the kind of work Mexicans are willing to do.

Also, most Mexicans will work circles around anyone I know. They are willing to work very hard for very little pay.

I see this everyday. I am in the construction industry.

As for the green card thing.... yeah, it happens. It shouldnt, but it does. After all, you have to find labor somewhere. Fortunately, most are official citizens, or are here legally by some other means.

One of the contractors was very candid and he flat out told me that americans have a bad attitude towards work and that the Mexicans work hard and do not complain. I used to work in the concrete industry 15 years ago and I busted my #ss and I noticed then that very few others worked hard at all. Now that I am working in the networking field I see the same thing. Most guys do not want to work and refuse to take accountability for thier actions. I think America will go down economically after this generation due to laziness.

This is kind of off topic and ignorant of me to ask, but I honestly don't know or never heard of it.....

Do Mexican's go on vacation besides the US???

I was thinking this last night because my understanding is that they don't have much money, i've never seen them on the tourist list of polite or arrogant tourists, I never hear anything about them except for them always going to the states to try and make a better life for themselves...

Originally posted by cryptorsa1001
I think America will go down economically after this generation due to laziness.

Yep yes and YEAH.

And don't think its just the working americans, its also corporate america's fault.

When you go for a job in IT for instance, you can be the most die hard geek with skills in all apps and hardware, but if you don't have a degree to go with it, you can't get that job.

Then when you do have a degree and get that job, nothing else then gluing your lips to your bosses ass is expected from you. As long as you do that, you don't have to do anything else.
But if you work hard and know your stuff well, but refuse to kiss your bosses fat behind, you'll get either fired or stuck in a position without promotions for the rest of your carreer.

In other words, apart from not wanting to work hard, americans in higher positions don't even want their peers to work, they only want their peers to stroke their own fatass ego's.

I'm 26 years old with a 10 page resume having done work for nearly every fortune 500 company, several european goverment bodies, military installations and having a flawless score as a police officer.

Yet for the life of me I can't get an IT job in the US that would let me do the work I'm capable of doing and have been doing for a long time here in europe.

This just because I only have a highschool diploma.

[edit on 8-12-2004 by thematrix]

This situation has actually been going on since the 1930's. There's an old Woody Guthrie song about a plane crash involving Mexican migrant workers where all aboard were killed; the song is called "Deportees."

There were a number of songs about this in the 1940's; the agriculture business was too hard (manual labor), too hot, too dangerous for most Americans. As factory jobs opened up, nobody but the immigrants and the non-Whites (who couldn't get decent jobs) would chop cotton or work in the insecticide-sprayed fields.

Caesar Chavez was a man who led the fight for rights and better treatment for the migrant workers (he was the grandson of slaves and many of these workers were treated little better than slaves): www.incwell.com...

So, yes, we see lots of immigrants taking over these jobs.

It's also a problem with our society. I work part-time at the university in the computer lab. I'm one of only three American-born citizens in the group of 50 workers. This is a low-level techie job, but the other Americans who take these jobs generally don't want to work the hours (only 20 hours) and usually quit. We're not talking a hard job; just a fairly low paying one with a lot of perks (like free access to the computers and a job where you can surf the internet and nobody shrieks.) And the boss is really REALLY good to us. Picky, but good.

But Americans don't want these computer lab monitor jobs. The foreign-born students get a huge break on their tuition if they take these jobs, and they line ujp for this.

If there were a lot of American-born kids lining up for these jobs, believe me there wouldn't be any migrant laborers. There's a demand for these workers and the bosses will fill them with anything that can walk and breathe and will do the job and won't get in his face.

And that, friends, is the worker who comes from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, etc, etc. If you don't want the situation to continue, then start helping people who need jobs here in the country to go out and get these jobs.

TrueLies, yes, Mexicans do go on vacation -- however, remember that there's a HUGE economic gap between the "average citizen" and the wealthy one who can afford the vacations.

Part of the problem now is that the mexicans will work for less. So contractors charge less to get the work. Once one guy does it the others have to do it to remain competitive, so it is not as simple as no americans want to do it, it is that they americans have to make more money than mexicans.These mexicans working on my roof all 6 of them live in the same apartment. Since they do not speak english they just tore off part of my roof that they were not supposed too. It is written on the estimate. I cannot communicate to them because they do not understand what I am saying to them. The only english speaking one left for a while and look what happened.

thematrix, you are right about IT jobs. It is not what you know but its your attitude. Let me give an example: I was working for a fortune 100 company performing desktop support. One of the new guys hired did not know jack. he got hired because his wife was high up the ladder. I trained him and did most of his tickets. His attitude was very positive when the boss was around, he had the can do attitude. when the boss left he was this sucks that sucks etc... just let me surf the web. Now the boss pulled some strings and got him a job in a team that sets the standards for the corporate desktop environment. After a few months he became the team lead. now remember he still does not know sh#t and now he is in the lead position to set the desktop environment. i heard that the number of desktop related tickets went way up after he became the team lead.

As far as degrees goes I have seen non-degreed it people do very well. I have 2 degrees and have not seen any benifit from them at all. When a problem comes up I am the one to fix it etc... but I get the same raise as everyone else.

The Mexicans come here for the many welfare benefits our country provides them free of charge. They also come to take jobs that most anyone can do without an education. These jobs are usually found in the construction, resturant and motel/hotel industry.
American employers hire these illegals not because an American citizen won't take these jobs but he/she is able to pay these workers far below the wage scale. The employer also does not have to provide any benefits such as health insurance to employ these people.
All illegals do not come here to find emplyoyment. Did you no that 1/3 of the federal prison population is composed of illegal Mexicans. Your taxes either state or federal are indirectly supporting the Mexicans to live amongst the legal residence of this Nation.

Originally posted by cryptorsa1001
thematrix, you are right about IT jobs ...

Well, in my case its because I have an attitude I guess.
I don't take crap from anyone, doesn't matter if its a corporate VP or whatever. And in the US they can't handle that, no matter how good you are at what you do.

Over here in Europe, I get more then enough respect for my skills and knowledge and the fact I dare to speak up against even the highest people up the ladder when they are wrong is also respected, because they know I only do that when I'm convinced the other person is wrong and for the rest I have nothing but respect for them.

If sucking up is the most important thing for US company management staff, then YES, eventualy they'll fail miserably and see more and more good jobs go abroad.